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From  the  "YALE  ALUMNI  WEEKLY" 

DECEMBER  25th,  1907 


EVOLUTION  AND  RELI&ION.     By  William  Trumbull.  '83*.  The 
Grafton  Press,     pp  100.     Price,  $1.25,  net. 


Evolution  and  Relfcibri 


A  PARENT'S  TALKS  WITH  HIS 
CHILDREN  CONCERNING  THE 
MORAL     SIDE     OF     EVOLUTION 


BY 

WILLIAM   TRUMBULL,  LL.B. 

U 


"Knowledge  breeds  conceit,  while  love  builds  up  character." 
—  Paul,  Twentieth  Century  New  Testament. 


THE    GRAFTON    PRESS 

NEW   YORK  MCMVII 


t; 


Copyright,  1907 
By  The  Grafton  Press 


(i>^^^ 


n(^ 


Dedication 

TO   MY   CHILDREN, 

AND  TO  ALL  THOSE,  THE  TRUE  GENTLEFOLK  OF 
OUR  RACE,  WHO  GO  TO  MAKE  UP  THE  DIVINE 
BROTHERHOOD      OF     THE     CHILD-SPIRIT 
IN    THIS    WORLD    OF    MARVELS,    THE 
FOLLOWING     STUDY     OF     EV- 
OLUTIONARY       IDEALS 
IS      LOVINGLY      INSCRIBED 


S40423 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  Beginning 1 

Light  and  Heat 1 

Life 2 

Man 2 

Intelligence 3 

Apparent  Helplessness 4 

Prolonged  Infancy 4 

Race  for  Life         5 

Man's  Triumph 5 

Disease 6 

Other  Enemies 7 

"-Man  Against  Man 9 

-     Fact  Versus  Theory        10 

Struggle  for  Existence        12 

Altruism 13 

Man  is  Complex 15 

Emotion         16 

Man's  Full-rounded  Naiure          .     .     .  - 17 

Selfishness 17 

^EALTH  OF  Nations 19 

Moral  Sentiments 20 

Life's  Conditions        21 

So-CAixED  Lower  Animals 22 

-Progress 24 

— ^^E  Idea  of  God         25 

Superstition 27 

Race  Survival        30 

Moral  Ideas 31 

Sacrifice 32 

Varying  Morai.  Ideas 34 

The  General  Good 36 

Survival  of  the  Fittest 38 

vii 


"  Believe  me,  unless  you  quite  change  and  become  like  children 
you  will  not  even  enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 

—  The  Idealist  of  Nazareth :  Ttoentieih  Century  New  Testament 


EVOLUTION  AND  RELIGION 

A  Beginning 

''In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth.  And  the  earth  was  waste  and  void,  and  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.''  —  Beyond  this  simple 
statement  of  creative  fact,  human  knowledge  with  all 
its  progress  does  not  go.  Man's  best  thought  seems  to 
admit  that  there  was  a  beginning,  a  creation.  No 
matter  how  many  countless  ages  back  he  may  push  the 
date,  man  still  appears  to  believe  that  the  universe,  as 
he  knows  it,  has  not  existed  from  all  eternity  and  will 
not  exist  to  all  eternity.  But  a  beginning  postulates  a 
cause,  a  creation  postulates  a  creator.  Had  the  uni- 
verse existed  unchanged  and  in  its  present  form  from 
all  eternity,  we  might  think  of  it  as  self-existent  from 
and  through  all  time  to  all  eternity.  Once  the  idea  of 
a  beginning  is  admitted,  however,  we  must  apparently 
likewise  admit  the  idea  of  a  cause.  This  cause  man 
calls  God. 

Light  and  Heat 

''And  God  said:  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament 
of  heaven.''  —  Here  again  human  knowledge  seems  to 
lend  its  corroborative  evidence.  The  normal  condi- 
tions of  space  are  apparently  darkness  and  cold.  Light 
and  heat  are  positive  phenomena,  somehow  myste- 
riously projected  into  the  purely  negative  conditions 

1 


3      ,  \    JlyOLUTION  AND   RELIGION 

^)ri  da;rkiies,s ;  anii  cold.     Whence  they  came  we  cannot 
dogmatically  say. 

Life 

^^  And  God  said:  Let  the  waters  swarm  with  swarms 
of  living  creatures  and  let  jowl  fly  above  the  earth  on  the 
face  of  the  expanse  of  the  heaven.'''  —  Here,  too,  the  most 
pronounced,  advanced  evolutionist  recognizes  the  truth 
of  simple  statement.  The  normal  conditions  of  space 
are  not  only  darkness  and  cold,  but  apparently  death. 
Life  projected  into  the  purely  negative  condition  of 
non-life  is  as  positive  a  phenomenon  as  light  projected 
into  darkness,  or  heat  into  cold.  Whence  that  life 
came,  again  we  cannot  absolutely  say. 

Man 

"  And  God  said :  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness :  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of 
the  sea  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air  and  over  the  cattle 
and  over  all  the  earth,''  —  This  would  appear  to  be  an 
admirably  simple  and  compact  statement  of  the  crown- 
ing positive  phenomenon  of  creation,  when  interpreted 
in  its  true  evolutionary  sense  of  a  gradual  development. 
Man,  who  is  to  have  dominion  over  all  the  earth, 
emerges  first  upon  the  scene.  He  is  to  have  dominion, 
not  only  over  all  the  other  forms  of  animal  life,  but 
over  the  earth  itself,  with  its  hidden  wealth,  its  as  yet 
unfolded  mysterious  forces,  which  are  to  be  subjugated 
to  his  will  and  become  his  obedient  servants.  He  is  to 
discover  and  control  the  positive  phenomena  of  light, 


Intelligence  3 

heat,  growth,  fire,  steam,  electricity.  He  is  to  sub- 
jugate the  lower  animals  and  make  them  do  his  bidding. 
He  is  to  invent  tools  and  weapons;  to  hunt;  to  shepherd 
flocks  and  herd  cattle;  to  till  the  earth  for  grains  and 
fruits  needful  for  his  existence. 

Intelligence 

And  how  will  this  be  brought  about?  Not  without 
struggle  and  sacrifice,  you  may  be  sure,  those  appar- 
ently indispensable  concomitants  of  all  life,  all  progress. 
But  there  has  developed  through  countless  ages  within 
the  head  of  this  new  animal,  man,  a  brain.  What  that 
brain  may  be  in  its  inmost  essence,  neither  you  nor  I 
know,  nor  probably  ever  will  know.  All  we  can  say  is 
that  the  entire  effort  of  creation  appears  to  have  been  a 
labor  and  a  struggle  until  it  has  produced  its  crowning 
glory,  a  being  with  a  thinking,  reasoning,  intelligent 
mind.  It  seems  a  far  cry  from  the  low  bestial  nature 
of  an  Australian  or  South  African  bushman  to  the 
god-like  intelligence  of  a  Socrates  or  Plato;  and  in  this 
connection  I  must  put  you  on  your  guard  against  the 
danger  of  overlooking  degeneracy,  which  seems  to  be 
quite  as  important  a  factor  in  life  as  upward  evolution. 
But  in  the  long  run,  the  degenerate  must  be  wiped  out 
by  the  very  law  of  evolution;  so  that  while  steadily 
recognizing  his  inevitable  presence,  we  can  still  sub- 
ordinate him  to  the  higher  general  law,  and  in  fact 
make  him  subservient  to  it. 


4  evoltttion  and  religion 

Apparent  Helplessness 

Man  is  born  one  of  the  weakest  of  all  the  animals. 
Physically,  he  has  no  weapons  of  ofiFense  or  defense 
worth  considering,  when  compared  with  the  jaws  of 
the  lion,  the  claws  of  the  tiger,  the  tusks  of  the  elephant, 
the  fore-arms  of  the  gorilla,  the  poison  fangs  of  the 
cobra,  or  the  purely  defensive  armor  of  so  inoffensive 
an  animal  as  the  armadillo.  Yet  through  that  same 
divine  spark  of  intelligence  within  his  brain,  he  fashions 
tools  and  weapons  which  make  him  more  than  a  match 
for  these  formidable  competitors  in  the  race  for  life. 

Prolonged  Infancy 

His  period  of  infancy,  again,  far  outlasts  theirs.  Their 
term  of  helplessness  at  the  farthest  seldom  exceeds  a 
year  or  two.  His  is  at  least  seven  times  as  long.  Yet 
during  this  long  period  of  apprenticeship  he  is  slowly 
but  surely  ripening  that  god-like  faculty  which  in  the 
end  will  give  him  the  mastery  over  them.  Nay,  more, 
the  imperative  conditions  of  this  prolonged  period  of 
comparative  helplessness  are  the  very  factors  which 
will  develop  within  him,  against  his  will  or  not,  the 
sense  of  gregariousness,  race  solidarity,  sympathy,  love; 
qualities  against  which  the  inferior  sense,  developed 
similarly  in  the  lower  animals  during  their  shorter 
term  of  helplessness  in  their  family  life,  has  proved 
utterly  powerless. 


Race  for  Life 


Race  for  Life 

^'And  God  blessed  them,^^  i.e.,  the  animals,  ^^  saying: 
Be  fruitful  and  multiply.  .  .  .  And  God  blessed  them,  i.e., 
man,  male  and  female,  and  said  unto  them:  Be  fruitful, 
and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it; 
and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth 
upon  the  earth J^  —  Here  are  the  conditions  of  the 
struggle  appositely  set.  The  voice  of  God,  speaking 
through  the  imperious,  universal  instinct  implanted  in 
every  form  of  life,  urges  toward  increase  of  species. 
If  the  lower  animals  increase  beyond  their  due  propor- 
tion, man  will  be  swept  oflf  the  earth.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  man  increase  beyond  his  due  proportion,  they 
in  their  turn  will  be  exterminated.  Man  is  saved  not 
alone  by  his  ever-increasing  intelligence,  but  by  the 
internecine  strife  prevalent  from  the  beginning  amongst 
the  lower  animals  themselves.  They  feed  upon,  they 
attempt  to  exterminate  each  other.  It  is  the  law  of  the 
jungle,  wherein  the  strong  preys  upon  the  weak,  a  law 
which  leads  to  the  survival  of  the  healthier,  stronger, 
more  beautiful  types. 

Man's  Triumph 

Man,  too,  is  forced  by  the  conditions  of  his  lot  to 
participate  in  this  strife,  both  against  the  lower  animals 
and  against  his  own  kind;  but  his  dawning  intelligence 
soon  leads  him  to  see  that  in  certain  cases,  at  least,  it 
will  better  suit  the  purpose  of  his  survival  to  domesti- 


6  Evolution  and  Religion 

cate  rather  than  to  exterminate,  to  enslave  rather  than 
kill.  Hence  his  protecting  care  over  flocks  of  sheep, 
herds  of  cattle,  fish  hatcheries;  his  friendship  for  dog 
and  cat;  all  of  whom  he  will  ward  against  the  attacks 
of  other  forms  of  life.  Hence,  too,  his  institution  of 
human  slavery.  Against  the  so-called  pernicious  forms 
of  lower  life,  i.^.,  those  that  militate  against  his  survival, 
he  will  indeed  wage  unrelenting  warfare,  calling  into 
that  service  the  very  instincts  which  the  struggle  for 
existence  has  developed  in  the  various  inferior  species 
who  serve  him.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
buffalo,  he  will  be  foolishly  short-sighted,  though  not 
without  protest  from  the  wiser  and  more  far-sighted  of 
his  race.  But  his  subjugation  of  the  wolves,  the  bears, 
the  lions  and  tigers,  the  rattlesnakes  and  cobras,  and 
all  forms  of  life  inimical  to  his  welfare,  is  ever  subject 
to  the  general  law  of  providing  for  his  own  survival. 
He  may  indeed  make  serious  mistakes  at  times,  as  when 
his  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  bird  Hfe  leads  him  to 
destroy  forms  of  life  which  are  beneficial  to  him  by 
reason  of  their  attacks  on  pernicious  forms  of  lower 
life.  But  in  the  end,  his  reason  will  prevail;  and  as  he 
comes  to  understand  more  clearly  their  relation  to  the 
cardinal  principle  of  his  own  survival,  so  will  he  extend 
his  protecting  care  over  all  the  beneficent  types  of 
lower  life. 

Disease 

As  man  progresses  in  knowledge  and  intelligence 
along  the  path  of  race  infancy  which,  again,  seems  to 


Other  Enemies  7 

differentiate  him  from  the  lower  animals,  other  more 
subtle  forms  of  lower  life  make  themselves  known 
through  the  universal  struggle  for  existence.  These 
are  disease  germs,  whether  transmitted  through  the 
numerous  pests  which  infest  his  household,  or  in  the 
air  which  he  breathes  or  the  water  which  he  drinks. 
At  first,  his  ignorance  and  helplessness  before  these 
obscure  enemies  of  life  lead  him  to  attribute  their  bale- 
ful influence  to  unseen  agencies  in  the  air  about  him, 
to  whom  he  offers  his  prayers  or  utters  his  threats  with 
childish,  pathetic  earnestness  and  simplicity.*  Once, 
however,  he  has  grasped  the  truth  that  they  too  are 
infinitesimal  forms  of  hfe  striving  to  feed  on  him,  he  is 
placed  in  a  more  advantageous  position  to  withstand 
their  onslaught.  No  tuberculous  germ,  no  typhoid 
germ  can  now  masquerade  as  visitations  of  a  hidden, 
offended  divinity.  They  are  pernicious  forms  of  lower 
life,  pernicious  in  that  they  militate  against  man's  sur- 
vival, and  to  be  met  and  fought  and  conquered  as  such. 

Other  Enemies 

But  man  in  his  race  for  life  has  many  other  enemies 
to  combat  besides  the  lower  types  of  life,  be  they  wild 
beasts  or  disease  germs.  Let  me  enumerate  some  of 
the  i^ore  important  ones.  Fierce  tropical  heats,  the 
intense  cold  of  northern  latitudes,  sudden  and  mys- 
terious blights  of  crops  followed  by  wasting  famines, 
earthquakes,  volcanoes,  thunderstorms,  floods,  con- 
flagrations, all  militate  against  his  survival  as  surely 
1  Nassau,  Fetichism  in  West  Africa,  pp.  98,  158. 


8  Evolution  and  Religion 

and  remorselessly  as  any  wild  beast,  or  as  the  pestilence 

which  stalketh  in  the  darkness.     The  onslaught  of  the 

unseen  enemy,  be  it  prowling  beast  of  prey,  or  sudden 

sickness,  or  benumbing  cold,   or  seismic  convulsion, 

appears  to  come  preferably  at  night,  a  season  which 

ever  seems  to   enhance  the  terror  of  the  visitation. 

What  more  natural,  then,  than  to  deify  the  life-giving 

Sun  who  shall  chase  all  these  phantoms  of  the  night 

away  ? 

From  out  this  vast  unknown  phenomenon. 
Strange  forces  strike  upon  my  wondering  soul. 
Rudely  impinging  on  my  consciousness: 
The  childhood  of  our  race  looks  through  mine  eyes. 

With  Persia  I  am  viewing  Night  and  Day, 

Darkness  and  light,  gloom  spread  o'er  earth  and  sea, 

Dispelled  and  shattered  by  the»heaven-born  Sun, 

An  ever  new,  yet  time-worn  miracle: 

And  in  that  never-ending,  ceaseless  strife 

Betwixt  the  powers  of  darkness  and  of  light, 

I  witness  Ormazd,  Ahriman  contend. 

With  the  Norse  warrior  I  feel  heat  and  cold, 

Simimer,  then  Winter,  following  in  their  train; 

I  watch  the  Sun  decline  from  solstice'  heat, 

A  pallid  orb,  to  lie  enchained  for  months; 

Then  on  the  glorious  resurrection  morn 

Of  Easter,  I  behold  him  rise  once  more. 

To  gain  in  daily  strength,  till  all  mankind 

Shall  bow  the  knee  and  own  his  kingly  sway:  * 

And  in  that  never-ending,  ceaseless  strife 

Betwixt  the  powers  of  shuddering  cold  and  heat 

I  dimly  see  grim  Jotuns,  Odin  strive. 

With  the  wild  savage  I  know  vigor,  blight. 
Plenty  and  Famine,  health  and  pestilence: 


Man  Against  Man 

And  in  that  never-ending,  ceaseless  strife 
Betwixt  the  powers  of  mortal  good  and  ill, 
I  see  strong  Gitche  Manitou  who  shields 
From  comitless  devils  of  the  nether  world. 

With  India  I  am  gazing  now  on  dreams, 
Sleeping  or  waking,  visions  of  the  night. 
Self-conscious  thought,  or  dark  sub-consciousness, 
When  man  lies  wrapped  in  sleep  like  death  profound: 
The  eternal  Brahm  cries,  Spirit,  God  in  all. 
All  else  is  Maya;  whilst  the  Bvddh  of  Time 
Speaks  only  of  the  present,  living  Now. 

With  Egypt  I  now  look  on  Life  and  Death, 
The  sacredness  of  every  living  part 
Of  organized  creation,  body,  soul. 
The  temple  door,  the  mystery  of  sex: 
All  is  divine  in  Nature;  I  can  trace 
The  Deity  descend  into  the  imnost  parts 
Of  animated  life  where  all  is  God. 


Man  Against  Man 

But  of  all  the  enemies  wherewith  man  has  had  to 
contend  in  the  struggle  for  life,  the  fiercest  has  ever 
been  his  fellowman.  This  battle  is  still  on.  True, 
the  warfare  to-day  is  not  so  often  waged  on  mere 
battlefields  as  in  days  of  yore.  Wars  of  that  kind  have 
possibly  grown  rarer  with  man's  so-called  upward 
evolution.  But  the  industrial,  social,  and  financial 
struggle  appears  to  grow  keener  with  each  succeeding 
advance  in  science  and  invention.  And  you  will  notice 
that  while  the  strife  between  man  and  man  becomes 
intensified,  there  has  grown  up  also,  gradually,  a  com- 
petition between  certain  aggregates  of  individuals,  or 


10  Evolution  and  Religion 

communities.  This  is  apparently  part  of  the  evolution 
of  our  race.  Evolution  means  development;  not  alone 
development  of  the  individual  but  of  aggregates  of 
individuals.  It  is  many-sided.  It  is  correlated,  inter- 
related. Its  ramifications  extend  here,  there,  every- 
where. At  first,  the  struggle  for  existence  would  seem 
logically  to  have  been  purely  personal,  or  for  the  family 
at  best.  Then,  gregariousness  would  be  forced  upon 
these  families  by*  the  conditions  of  life,  the  need  of 
mutual  help,  when  the  tribal  idea  would  arise.  Later, 
similar  but  more  extended  conditions  would  compel 
the  national  idea.  To-day,  the  so-called  "race"  idea 
is  beginning.  But  you  will  understand  that  this,  while 
representing  the  apparently  logical  sequence  of  the 
development  of  human  society,  does  not  of  necessity 
denote  its  true  historical  order.  That  would  be  to 
repeat  the  error  of  Drummond  and  other  theorists, 
who  assume  such  to  be  the  case.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
so  far  as  direct  evidence  goes,  the  tribal  instincts  may 
be  older  than  the  family  instincts.  Really,  however, 
all  seem  to  have  developed  more  or  less  together. 


Fact  Versus  Theory 

The  evolutionary  scene  now  changes  abruptly.  We 
come  from  the  realm  of  theory  to  the  domain  of  fact. 
According  to  our  theory  hitherto,  man  has  been  acting 
as  we  should  expect  a  thoroughly  rational,  selfish  crea- 
ture to  act.  Were  he  a  simple  algebraic  quantity,  an 
unknown  x,  he  could  not  answer  more   beautifully. 


Fact  Versus  Theory  11 

more  exactly  to  the  demands  of  our  intelligence  theory. 
The  law  of  his  survival  calls,  in  the  first  place,  for  his 
extermination  of  tigers,  cobras,  and  all  the  other 
enemies  of  life  (when  he  can  get  at  them),  that  militate 
against  his  continued  existence.  Accordingly,  what 
do  we  find  man  doing  at  the  earliest  dawn  of  recorded 
history?  Is  he  engaged  in  this  unrelenting  warfare 
against  these  pernicious  forms  of  lower  life?  Perni- 
cious fiddlesticks.  The  absurd  creature  is  actually 
engaged  in  worshiping  them  as  sacred,  higher  forms 
of  life.  Instead  of  a  ruthless  warfare  against  them,  as 
his  reason  ought  to  dictate,  the  silly  creature  is  so  irra- 
tional as  to  be  protecting  these  dangerous  forms  of  life, 
so  that  if  any  one  kills  these  animals  wilfully  he  is 
immediately  put  to  death  himself.^  Was  there  ever 
such  an  outrageously  exasperating  creature  as  man 
devised  or  invented;  so  deliciously  whimsical,  so  abso- 
lutely contrary,  so  upsetting  to  all  beautiful,  mathe- 
matically exact  theories  concerning  his  struggle  with 
the  enemies  of  Hfe  ?  Even  to  this  day  the  tiger  is  wor- 
shiped in  parts  of  India.^  The  inhabitants  of  Sumatra 
are  unwilling  to  destroy  the  same  animals  for  super- 
stitious reasons,  although  they  commit  frightful  rav- 
ages.^   The  Kamtschatkans  still  pay  a  religious  regard 


1  Herodotus,  Book  II,  §  65. 

2  Pritchard's  Physical  Hist  vol.  IV.  p.  501.  Compare  Transac- 
tions of  Asiatic  Society,  vol.  III.  p.  66;  Coleman's  Mythology  of  the 
HindtiSy  p.  321. 

3  Marsden's  History  of  Sumatra,  pp.  149,  254,  Buckle's  Hist,  of 
Civ,  vol.  I.  p.  90. 


12  Evolution  and  Religion 

to  bears.*  In  Abyssinia  hyenas  are  considered  en- 
chanters.^ The  serpent  has  been  worshiped  the  world 
over.^  And  that  this  superstitious  regard  has  been 
handed  down  from  time  immemorial,  or  that  it  is  not 
merely  circumscribed  or  local,  consider  man's  wide- 
spread, primitive  belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls, 
a  belief  which  rendered  almost  all  animal  life  sacred. 
Metempsychosis  has  been  common  to  Brahmanism  in 
India,  to  Buddhism  in  China,  Japan,  Siam,  Ceylon, 
Nepaul,  and  Thibet,  to  the  religion  of  ancient  Egypt, 
to  the  speculative  thought  of  Chaldea,  Persia,  and 
Greece.*  We  find  it  in  its  lowest  forms  to-day  among 
several  tribes  of  Africa  and  America,  which  believe 
"  that  the  soul,  immediately  after  death,  must  look  out 
for  a  new  owner,  and,  if  need  be,  enter  even  the  body 
of  an  animal."  ^ 

Struggle  for  Existence 

What  is  the  matter  then?  Is  our  theory  wrong? 
Not  necessarily.  I  would  not  have  you  take  such  an 
extreme  position  as  that;  for  what  appears  to  be  the 
best  thought  of  our  time  seems  to  be  tending  more  and 
more  toward  accepting-  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  only 

1  Grieve's  Hist,  of  Kamtschatkay  p.  205.  Erman's  Siberia,  vol.  I. 
p.  492;  vol.  II.  pp.  42,  43. 

2  Murray's  Life  of  Bnice,  p.  472. 

3  Matter's  Histoire  du  Gnosticismey  vol.  I.  p.  380,  Paris,  1828. 
See  all  these  authorities  collated  in  Buckle,  vol.  I.  p.  90. 

4  G.  E.  Lessing,  Dass  rmhr  als  fiinf  sinne  fiXr  den  Menschen  sein 
konnen,  Conclusion.    See  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  XIV.  p.  538. 

&Ibid.  p.  534. 


Altruism  13 

with  profound  modifications  of  interpretation;  modifi- 
cations which  in  all  probability  will  increase  as  man's 
vision  of  truth  enlarges.  But  one  thing  seems  to  be 
certain.  The  theory  of  a  universal,  remorseless  struggle 
for  existence  between  man  and  the  more  formidable 
of  his  animal  foes  does  not  square  with  the  facts  so 
far  as  we  know  them.  For  this  is  no  transient,  unim- 
portant departure  from  the  truth  of  the  theory,  such  as 
we  saw  in  the  case  of  man's  short-sighted  treatment  of 
the  buffalo,  or  of  beneficent  forms  of  bird  life.  This 
is  no  local,  circumscribed  mistake  of  only  temporary 
effect.  It  seems  to  be  fundamental.  Metempsychosis 
appears  to  have  been  well-nigh  universal  as  a  belief, 
not  alone  among  primitive  man,  not  only  in  the  Egyp- 
tian, Indian,  and  far  Eastern  civilizations,  in  the  Chal- 
dean, Persian,  and  Greek  speculative  beliefs;  but  it 
prevails  even  to-day  in  over  one  half  of  the  human  race. 
To  say  that  man's  ignorance  has  caused  it,  that  it  has 
all  been  due  to  a  mistake  on  man's  part,  does  not 
help  out  the  theory  in  the  least.  Whatever  the  cause 
or  causes,  the  theory  does  not  seem  to  square  with  the 
facts.  To  upbraid  man  for  his  superstitious  fears 
which  have  made  us  modify  our  mathematically  pre- 
cise theory  would  be  to  show  even  greater  childishness 
in  the  way  of  intellectual  petulance  than  he  has  shown 
in  the  way  of  childish  fear. 

Altruism 

The  same  failure  of  our  evolutionary  theory  to  square 
directly  and  fully  with  the  facts  in  the  case,  you  will 


14  Evolution  and  Religion 

find  when  you  come  to  study  the  supposedly  ruthless 
struggle  between  man  and  man.  Between  rival  tribes, 
nations,  and  races,  between  rival  families,  or  heads  of 
families,  this  relentless  strife  appears  to  have  been 
indeed  true;  but  from  the  earliest  dawn  of  history, 
since  man  was  first  forced  into  gregariousness,  co- 
operation rather  than  individual  competition  seems 
more  often  to  have  been  the  rule  within  the  narrower 
limits  of  family  or  tribe.  The  higher,  more  altruistic 
principle  has  overlaid  the  lower  and  more  selfish  one. 
The  same  is  true  even  in  the  case  of  the  so-called  lower 
animals,  both  the  higher  quadrumana,  and  insects  like 
ants  and  bees.  It  is  not  a  purely  selfish  struggle  for 
individual  existence  which  prevails,  but  a  struggle  for 
family,  tribe,  or  race  survival.  In  other  words,  the 
struggle  for  life  is  not  the  selfish  strife  which  a  hasty 
interpretation  would  put  upon  evolution's  great  gen- 
eralization. The  instinct  of  self-preservation  guards 
sufficiently  the  interests  of  self.  But  the  struggle  for 
existence  appears  to  be  a  struggle  for  family,  clan,  or 
race.  So  pronounced  has  this  phenomenon  been  in  the 
history  of  man,  and  also  of  some  of  the  lower  orders  of 
creation,  that  oftentimes  we  find  the  individual  volun- 
tarily relinquishing  his  own  personal  selfish  interests, 
his  life  even,  to  merge  them  in  the  larger,  more  un- 
selfish interests  of  family  or  clan.  Otherwise,  how 
shall  you  explain  satisfactorily  the  phenomena  of 
maternal  devotion,  parental  self-sacrifice,  brotherly 
love,  friendship,  fealty  to  tribe  or  organization,  patriot- 
ism; in  a  word,  race  loyalty  ?    The  theory  of  a  ruthless 


Man  is  Complex  15 

struggle  lor  each  individual  self  does  not  apparently 
admit  of  such  soft-hearted  virtues  as  these.  Indeed, 
it  would  appear  as  though  it  were  rather  the  very 
struggle  for  existence  between  rival  families,  tribes, 
nations,  and  races,  which  had  largely  compelled  man 
to  develop  his  unselfish  virtues,  to  submerge  self  in 
what  proves  to  be  an  at  least  limited  altruism;  precisely 
as  it  has  done  amongst  the  animals  of  the  jungle. 

Man  is  Complex 

Let  us  therefore  frankly  admit  that  our  theory,  as 
hitherto  presented,  has  been  only  partly  true;  that  it  is 
at  best  only  a  guess  at  partial  truth.  There  are  other 
factors  entering  into  the  problem  which  will  profoundly 
modify,  or  add  to,  the  theory  of  a  ruthless  and  purely 
selfish  struggle  for  existence.  Not  only  x  but  y  and  s, 
and  for  all  I  know  the  twenty-three  other  letters  of 
the  alphabet,  may  yet  have  to  represent  man  in  our 
algebraic  formula  of  the  complex  problem  which  he 
presents.  For  there  would  seem  to  be  many  other  facul- 
ties or  qualities  besides  reason  that  enter  into  man's 
make-up.  Man  is  not  pure  intelligence  or  thought 
only.  Man  is  also  emotion  or  feeling.  Man  is  like- 
wise will  or  voHtion.  His  appears  to  be  a  sacred  mind 
trinity,  without  any  one  of  which  he  is  incomplete;  for 
will,  too,  seems  to  stand  as  final  arbiter  between  the 
conflicting  claims  of  intellect  and  emotion.  On  his 
animal  side,  moreover,  man  is  largely  instinct,  a 
quaUty  which  relates  him  to  the  lower  animals,  thus 
showing    his    probable    derivation.     On    his    spiritual 


16  Evolution  and  Religion 

side,  he  rises  at  times  to  the  height  and  dignity  of  soul, 
an  attribute  which  connects  him  with  what  we  call  the 
divine  in  nature,  thus  showing  his  possible  destiny. 
Even  his  intelligence  is  subdivided  into  several  factors, 
one  of  which,  imagination,  runs  away  entirely  at  times 
with  the  rest  of  the  man,  emotion,  volition,  instinct, 
soul,  memory,  perception,  reason  and  all.  Even  his 
emotions  are  subdivided  into  several  passions,  one  of 
which,  fear,  gallops  away  in  like  manner  at  times  with 
the  whole  man.  Hence,  you  see  what  a  complex 
creature  you  are  dealing  with.  Any  attempt  to  formu- 
late a  thoroughly  rounded,  complete  philosophy  of  life 
based  on  only  one  of  man's  faculties  is  doomed  to 
disappointment.  It  is  what  I  call  a  guess  at.  partial 
truth. 

Emotion 

You  remember  how  there  had  developed  through 
countless  ages  within  this  new  animal,  man,  an  intelli- 
gent, reasoning,  thinking  mind.  That  was  one  side 
of  his  nature.  At  the  same  time,  possibly  prior  to 
it,  there  was  developing  within  man's  mind  another 
side  of  his  nature,  an  instinctive,  unreasoning,  loving 
heart.  What  that  heart  may  be  in  its  inmost  essence, 
neither  you  nor  I  know,  nor  probably  ever  will  know. 
All  we  can  say  is  that  the  entire  effort  of  creation  ap- 
pears to  have  been,  as  in  the  case  of  man's  brain,  a 
labor  and  a  struggle  until  it  has  produced  its  equally 
crowning  glory,  a  being  with  a  great,  generous,  loving 
heart. 


Man's  Full-Rounded  Nature  17 


Man's  Full-Rounded  Nature 

This  same  evolutionary  panegyric  might  be  pronounced 
over  man's  will,  which  is  still  another  side  of  his  nature, 
over  man's  imagination,  over  man's  faculty  of  language ; 
in  fact  over  every  great  attribute,  faculty,  or  quaUty  of 
his  rich,  many-sided  nature.  And  fortunate  it  would 
seem  to  have  been  for  man  that  his  nature  is  prismatic, 
fortunate  that  his  intellectual  ignorance  at  first  saved 
him  from  following  out  unchecked  and  to  its  rigorous 
logical  conclusion  the  struggle  for  self  before  he  had 
had  time  to  develop  the  higher  altruistic  qualities 
within  him.  For  man  is  selfish  with  his  head,  generous 
with  his  heart.  (If  you  doubt  this,  note  the  difference 
between  the  sexes.)  Unbounded  selfishness,  the  per- 
petual struggle  between  different  selfish  entities,  each 
striving  to  absorb  all  that  tended  to  their  own  indi- 
vidual advancement  regardless  of  the  interests  of 
family,  tribe,  or  nation,  would  have  kept  man  forever 
in  anarchy  and  prevented  all  progress.  (Even  the 
common  sparrow  has  risen  in  the  evolutionary  scale 
above  this  point.)  Equally  unbounded  generosity  on 
man's  part,  on  the  other  hand,  would  have  led  to  race 
extinction.  Each  quality  seems  to  have  served  as  an 
indispensable  check  upon  the  other. 

Selfishness 

Prominent  among  the  many  elements  of  the  large 
debt  of  gratitude  which  our  race  owes  to  the  great- 
hearted originator  of  the  theory  of  evolution    is  the 


18  Evolution  and  Religion 

fact  that  he  appears  to  have  put  an  eflFectual,  lasting 
quietus  upon  two  schools  of  thought  noisily  prevalent 
before  his  time:  those  who  assumed  that  the  founda- 
tion of  all  morality  lay  in  a  form  of  selfishness,  and 
those  who  assumed  that  it  lay  in  what  would  appar- 
ently be  only  a  refinement  of  the  same  idea,  the  prin- 
ciple of  greatest  happiness.  Since  Darwin's  time, 
particularly  as  reinforced  by  Spencer's  writings,  the 
creed  of  self  seems  to  have  lain  by  the  roadside  of 
human  thought,  a  deflated  wind-bag,  punctured  by 
the  keen  lance  of  this  knightly  yet  modest  champion 
of  truth.  As  he  puts  it  himself,  if  we  accept  his  evo- 
lutionary theory  that  "  the  moral  sense  is  fundamentally 
identical  with  the  social  instincts,  the  reproach  of  laying 
the  foundation  of  the  most  noble  part  of  our  nature  in 
the  base  principle  of  selfishness  is  removed;  unless 
indeed  the  satisfaction  which  every  animal  feels  when 
it  follows  its  proper  instincts,  and  the  dissatisfaction 
felt  when  prevented,  be  called  selfish.  When  a  man 
risks  his  life  to  save  that  of  a  fellow  creature,  it  seems 
more  appropriate  to  say  that  he  acts  for  the  general 
good  or  welfare  rather  than  for  the  general  happiness 
of  mankind.  No  doubt  the  welfare  and  the  happiness 
of  the  individual  usually  coincide;  and  a  contented, 
happy  tribe  will  flourish  better  than  one  that  is  dis- 
contented and  unhappy.  At  an  early  period  in  the 
history  of  man,  the  expressed  wishes  of  the  community 
will  have  naturally  influenced  to  a  large  extent  the  con- 
duct of  each  member;  and  as  all  wish  for  happiness, 
the  "greatest  happiness  principle"  will  have  become 


Wealth  of  Nations  19 

a  most  important  secondary  guide  and  object.  But 
the  social  instincts,  including  sympathy,  always  serve 
as  the  primary  impulse  and  guide."  ^ 

Wealth  of  Nations 

In  his  well-known  Wealth  of  Nations,  the  foundation 
of  our  so-called  dismal  science  of  Political  Economy, 
Adam  Smith  ascribed  all  human  actions  to  selfishness, 
enlightened  or  otherwise.^  In  his  equally  important 
but  far  less  known  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,  pub- 
lished some  seventeen  years  earlier,  Smith  ascribed  all 
human  actions  to  sympathy.^  The  two  works  would 
appear  to  have  been  not  antagonistic  but  supplementary 
to  each  other,  inasmuch  as  Smith  was  already  deliver- 
ing the  lectures  which  comprehended  the  fundamentals 
of  his  later  work  at  least  six  years  prior  to  the  publica- 
tion of  his  earlier  work.*  But  man's  intellect,  with 
its  inevitable  one-sidedness,  its  customary  naive  ten- 
dency to  exaggerate  only  its  own  side  of  human  nature 
(precisely  as  you  may  see  men  doing  in  the  case  of  their 
several  professions,  vocations,  or  specialties  in  life),  has 
taken  up  the  later  of  Adam  Smith's  works  alone,  and 
attempted  to  build  an  imperfect,  incomplete  philosophy 
of  life  thereon.  As  a  matter  of  fact.  Smith's  method 
seems  to  have  been  an  honest,  catholic-minded  attempt 
to  investigate,  undisturbed  by  the  interfering  action  of 

1  The  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  pp.  93,  94. 

2  Buckle,  Hist  of  Civ.  vol.  II.  p.  344.  s  iJyid.  p.  348. 

^  Dugald  Stewart's  Life  of  Adam  Smithy  p.  Ixxviii.,  Smith's  Post- 
humous Essays, 


20  Evolution  and  Religion 

the  opposite  quality,  first  the  sympathetic  side  of 
human  nature,  secondly  its  selfish  side.  There  would 
appear  to  have  been  a  profound  meaning  in  his  method, 
for  the  shield  of  truth  ever  bears  two  sides.  No  human 
being  can  be  called  exclusively  selfish,  no  human  being 
can  be  called  exclusively  sympathetic.  And  yet  Adam 
Smith  in  his  speculative  treatises,  purely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  speculation  (as  in  pure  mathematics),  seems  to 
have  separated  these  two  qualities  which  at  heart  are 
really  inseparable. 

Moral  Sentiments 

In  his  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,  Smith  laid  down 
as  his  one  great  cardinal  principle  from  which  all  sub- 
ordinate principles  follow,  that  the  general  rules  of 
morality  which  we  prescribe  to  ourselves  and  which 
govern  our  conduct  are  only  arrived  at  by  observing 
the  conduct  of  others  ^;  and  that  these  general  rules  of 
morality  are  ultimately  founded  upon  experience  of 
what  our  moral  faculties,  our  natural  sense  of  merit 
and  propriety,  approve  of  or  disapprove  of.^  Is  not 
the  element  of  truth  in  Adam  Smith's  principle  rather 
that  the  mob,  the  undecided,  the  majority  of  men,  wait 
to  take  their  cue  from  the  leaders  of  public  opinion,  the 
masterful  ones,  the  strong  spirits  among  mankind.'^ 
Man,  like  some  of  the  lower  animals,  apparently  must 
have  leaders,  leaders  of  thought  as  well  as  leaders  of 
action.  If  what  these  leaders  of  thought  teach  happens 
to  answer  to  a  universal  racial  or  social  instinct,  the 

1  Smith's  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,  p.  219.        2  n^d.  p.  220. 


Life's  Conditions  21 

truth  of  their  teaching  will  be  ultimately  recognized  and 
so  become  the  norm  of  general  conduct.  But  this  only 
pushes  the  diflSculty  one  step  back.  These  leaders  of 
public  opinion  must  get  their  ruling  ideas  of  conduct 
from  some  source.  They  will  hardly  take  them  from 
the  irresolute  mob  which  is  watching  to  follow  their 
lead.  I  believe  that  these  ideas  of  conduct  are  devel- 
oped out  of  the  social  conditions  of  life  itself,  both 
among  leaders  and  among  the  people ;  conditions  which, 
so  far  as  we  can  see,  have  been  made  obligatory,  have 
been  laid  down  for  the  express  purpose  of  developing 
moral  ideas  in  this  world  of  ours.  True,  the  leaders 
of  human  thought  will  first  recognize  and  formulate 
these  rules  of  conduct;  but  unless  their  teachings  answer 
to  the  people's  social  instincts  (there  have  been  many 
false  prophets  in  the  world  who  have  enjoyed  a  tem- 
porary popularity),  their  truth  will  not  be  permanently 
acknowledged.  This  is  the  biological  explanation  of 
the  phenomenon  of  moral  ideas,  and  therefore  it  appears 
to  my  mind  the  natural  one. 

Life's  Conditions 

A  mother's  loving  self-sacrifice  for  her  young,  a 
father's  self-denial  for  the  welfare  of  his  family,  a 
clansman's  supreme  sacrifice  for  the  good  of  his  clan, 
a  patriotic  soldier's  voluntary  relinquishment  of  life 
in  order  that  his  nation  may  live,  all  seem  to  be  suc- 
cessive or  concurrent  steps  in  this  evolution  of  moral 
ideas.  They  are  evolutionary  ideals  wrought  out  and 
maintained  by  practical  idealists,  without  which  and 


22  Evolution  and  Religion 

without  whom  the  world  would  apparently  quickly 
disintegrate  in  moral  chaos.  The  same  fundamental 
idea  seems  to  pervade  them  all,  viz.,  the  imperative 
necessity  of  subordinating  self  to  the  general  welfare, 
of  sacrificing  a  personal,  present,  tangible  advantage 
to  some  possible,  nay  doubtful,  future  benefit  for  family, 
clan,  or  nation.  Do  you  maintain  that  all  love,  too, 
the  self-sacrificial  love  of  a  mother  for  her  children, 
of  a  father  for  his  family,  of  a  soldier  for  his  country, 
of  a  philanthropist  for  his  race,  is  based  in  its  ultimate 
analysis  upon  an  enlightened  selfishness?  Then  all 
honor  to  the  power  which,  starting  with  so  humble  and 
lowly  a  form  in  the  evolutionary  scale  of  morals  as 
personal  selfishness,  has  been  able  to  evolve  through 
the  natural  conditions  of  life  such  higher,  nobler  forms 
of  enlightened  selfishness  as  these.  And  in  such  case, 
you  must  also  be  prepared  to  concede  to  the  lower 
animals  an  almost  equal  degree  of  enlightenment  and 
of  selfishness  with  man. 

So-Called  Lower  Animals 

For  you  will  notice  that  this  sentiment  of  loyalty  to 
family,  tribe,  or  race  is  not  confined  by  any  manner 
of  means  to  man  alone.  Many  of  the  animals  of  the 
jungle  appear  to  have  it  as  well,  some  possibly  even 
more  highly  developed  than  man.  Subordination  of  self 
to  the  good  of  the  general  pack  seems  to  be  common  to 
baboons,  wild  dogs,  wolves,  and  other  beasts  of  prey  on 
the  one  hand,  to  insects  like  ants  and  bees  on  the  other.  ^ 
1  The  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  p.  72. 


So-called  Lower  Animals  23 

Unquestioning  subordination  of  the  individual  to  the 
general  welfare  would  appear  to  be  the  rule  among 
them,  thus  forming  undoubtedly  the  germ  of  what 
develops  into  a  sort  of  rudimentary  brute  morality. 
What,  then,  is  the  distinction  between  man  and  the 
so-called  lower  animals?  Is  it  his  prolonged  period 
of  infancy,  and  the  opportunity  which  this  gives  to 
develop  his  mind?  But  the  orang-outang  does  not 
appear  to  reach  adult  age  until  between  ten  and  fifteen, 
an  age  not  much  beyond  that  of  human  adults  in  the 
tropics.^  Is  it  his  intelligence?  But  many  of  the 
lower  animals  too  would  appear  to  possess  intelligence 
in  at  least  its  rudimentary  form.  Is  it  his  language? 
But  they  too  would  seem  to  have  means  of  communi- 
cating with  others  of  their  own  species,  however  im- 
perfectly developed  those  means  may  be.  Is  it  his 
emotions,  his  will?  But  they  too  show  fear,  anger, 
love,  etc. ;  they  too  show  the  power  of  volition.  There 
would  appear  to  be  a  difference  in  degree,  but  hardly 
in  kind.  Man,  however,  has  been  defined  as  a  reli- 
gious animal,  and  I  suspect  it  is  here  that  the  cardinal 
difference  begins  to  show  itself.  The  lower  animals 
do  not  seem  to  manifest  the  faintest  symptoms  of 
spiritualizing  the  powers  of  nature,  the  enemies  of  life, 
as  we  have  seen  man  doing  even  in  early  race  infancy. 
They  do  not  appear  to  live  as  man  does  in  a  constant 
superstitious  dread  of  death,  whether  for  himself  or 
for  those  he  loves.  True,  they  will  cower  before  an 
approaching  thunderstorm  or  earthquake,  they  will 
1  Ibid,  p.  13. 


24  Evolution  and  Religion 

flee  in  terror  from  volcanic  outburst  or  conflagration. 
This  is  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  common  to  ani- 
mals and  men  alike.  But  nothing  even  remotely 
resembling  an  attitude  of  prayer,  entreaty,  objurgation 
or  remonstrance  to  unseen  agencies  in  the  air  about 
them,  can  apparently  be  detected  in  them.  If  that 
dumb  brute,  the  faithful  dog,  may  be  said  to  worship 
anything  in  nature  it  is  the  master  whom  he  sees  and 
who  feeds  him.  In  this  he  would  seem  to  approach 
the  intellectual  level  of  the  positivist  or  Comtist  school 
of  thought  among  mankind,  who  appear  to  have  se- 
lected the  same  imperfect,  capricious  deity  as  the 
object  of  their  worship.  But  this  can  hardly  be  called 
spiritualizing  an  unseen  power  of  nature. 

Progress 

Now,  if  to  this  so-called  religious  instinct  of  man  be 
added  his  apparently  infinite  capacity  for  upward 
development,  for  progress  mentally,  morally,  spiritually, 
(and  likewise  his  equally  infinite  capacity  for  downward 
degeneracy  along  the  same  lines),  I  think  you  will  have 
the  real  factors  in  life  which  cardinally  differentiate 
him  from  the  so-called  lower  animals.  The  animals 
would  appear  to  be  comparatively  stationary  as  regards 
progress.  Man  must  apparently  either  advance  or 
retrograde.  In  other  words,  there  would  seem  to  be 
something  more  than  mind,  with  its  sacred  trinity  of 
intelligence,  emotion,  and  will,  which  makes  the  real 
difference  between  inan  and  the  lower  animals  who 
appear  to  possess  all  these  faculties  in  at  least  their 


The  Idea  of  God  25 

rudimentary  form.  His  progress  in  all  the  social  phe- 
nomena of  life  (language,  intelligence,  invention,  prop- 
erty, civilization),  seems  to  be  conditioned  rather  on 
his  worship  of  certain  evolutionary  ideals  which  his 
ever-increasing  intelligence  allows  him  to  hand  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  thus  accumulating  for 
the  good  of  the  race  a  constantly  growing  fund  of 
mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  truth.  Starting  with  the 
lowly  yet  mysterious  power  of  spiritualizing  the  brute 
forces  of  nature,  man  rises  to  the  deification  of  the 
moral  ideas  which  the  conditions  of  life  compel  within 
him,  until  finally  he  evolves  the  sublime  conception  of 
God. 

The  Idea  of  God 

This  idea  of  God  in  the  heart  and  mind  and  soul  of 
man,  apparently  arising  out  of  the  very  conditions  of 
life  itself,  would  seem  to  be  the  final  answer  to  the  riddle 
of  creation,  to  this  sphinx  of  human  destiny.  It  is  the 
supreme  evolutionary  ideal,  the  ideal  which  every 
right-thinking  parent  appears  to  consider  it  necessary 
to  first  teach  his  or  her  child  while  the  mind  is  yet  im- 
pressionable, so  that  it  may  acquire  the  very  nature  of 
an  instinct.  In  the  history  of  our  race,  the  idea  of  God 
seems  to  have  been  slowly  unfolding  itself  from  the 
beginning.  It  would  appear  to  have  been  a  progressive 
revelation,  a  gradual  unfolding  of  truth,  the  result  of 
an  upward  evolution;  or,  as  Paul  expressed  it  when 
speaking  to  the  Greeks  on  Mars  Hill,  the  purpose  of 
creation  has  been  '^thM  men  should  seek  God,  if  haply 


26  Evolution  and  Religion 

they  might  feel  after  him  and  find  him,  though  he  is  not 
far  from  each  one  of  us."  Whether  this  idea  of  God 
be  called  a  special  revelation  of  truth  to  our  race,  or 
be  regarded  as  naturally  evolved  out  of  life's  condi- 
tions, apparently  matters  but  little.  The  main  thing  is 
that  our  race  has  the  idea  of  God,  that  it  entertains 
and  cherishes  a  profound,  supreme  ideal  of  law  and 
beauty,  of  aspiration  and  longing,  of  love  and  duty. 
For  to  say  that  the  idea  is  the  product  of  an  upward 
evolution,  of  a  gradual  development,  really  explains 
nothing.  That  is  a  mere  change  of  terms,  a  novel 
method  of  phrasing.  The  basic  question  will  always 
remain.  Why  has  such  a  creature  as  man  been 
evolved  out  of  evolutionary  conditions  of  life  which 
constrain  him  to  develop  a  conscience,  to  deify  his 
moral  ideas  as  sacred  duties,  to  spiritualize  the  unseen 
powers  of  nature?  To  answer  dogmatically  that  it 
has  all  been  due  to  blind  chance  appears  hardly  tenable. 
A  reasonable,  unprejudiced  human  being  would  rather 
argue  that  these  upward  aspirations  and  needs  of  the 
mind  and  soul  tended  to  prove  the  probable  certainty 
of  their  ultimate  fulfilment.  For  is  it  not  unthinkable 
to  you  that  the  river  should  rise  higher  than  its  source, 
that  the  part  should  rise  to  be  greater  than  the  whole, 
that  the  creature  should  rise  above  the  creator? 


"A  fire-mist  and  a  planet  — 

A  crystal  and  a  cell  — 
A  jelly-fish  and  a  saurian. 

And  a  cave  where  the  cave-men  dwell; 
Then  a  sense  of  law  and  beauty, 


Superstition  £7 

And  a  face  turned  from  the  clod. 
Some  call  it  Evolution 
And  others  call  it  God." 

"A  haze  on  the  fair  horizon. 

The  infinite,  tender  sky. 
The  ripe,  rich  tints  of  the  corn-fields. 

And  the  wild  geese  sailing  high  — 
And  all  over  upland  and  lowland 

The  charm  of  the  golden-rod. 
Some  of  us  call  it  Autumn 

And  others  call  it  God." 

"Like  tides  on  a  crescent  sea-beach, 

When  the  moon  is  new  and  thin, 
Into  our  hearts  high  yearnings 

Come  welling  and  surging  in  — 
Come  from  the  mystic  ocean, 

Whose  rim  no  foot  has  trod  — 
Some  of  us  call  it  Longing 

And  others  call  it  God." 

"A  picket  frozen  on  duty  — 

A  mother  starved  for  her  brood  — 
Socrates  drinking  the  hemlock. 

And  Jesus  on  the  rood; 
And  millions  who,  humble  and  nameless, 

The  straight,  hard  pathway  trod  — 
Some  call  it  Consecration 

And  others  call  it  God."  * 


Superstition 

Let  us  now  return  to  man  and  his  primitive  beliefs. 
You  have  seen  how  man's  emotion  of  fear  interfered 

1 W.  H.  Camith,  Each  in  His  Ovm  Tongue, 


28  Evolution  and  Religion 

with  his  struggle  for  existence  against  the  more  danger- 
ous of  his  animal  foes.  You  have  seen  how  man's 
social  instincts,  his  emotions  of  love  and  sympathy, 
interfered  with  his  personal,  individual  struggle  for 
life.  Is  there  any  necessary  connection  between  the 
two  phenomena?  The  emotions  of  man,  like  the 
reasoning  powers  of  man,  seem  to  have  been  developed 
through  struggle  and  sacrifice.  Human  love,  although 
the  mainspring  of  most  of  man's  lasting  hopes  and  joys, 
appears  likewise  to  be  the  source  of  most  of  man's 
abiding  fears  and  sorrows.  Apparently  we  cannot 
have  one  without  the  other.  They  are  part  of  the 
warp  and  woof  of  life.  Born  among  the  weakest  of 
all  animals,  with  a  prolonged  period  of  infancy,  race 
infancy  as  well  as  individual  infancy,  man  is  compelled 
by  the  very  conditions  of  his  long  period  of  compara- 
tive helplessness  to  combine  for  mutual  help  against 
the  enemies  of  his  life,  in  family,  tribe,  and  nation. 
Hence  arises  the  sentiment  of  dependence  on  others, 
of  protection  over  others,  of  race  solidarity,  of  sym- 
pathy, of  love;  qualities  which,  as  you  have  seen, 
eventually  give  him  the  mastery  over  the  lower  animals 
with  their  inferior  sense  of  the  same  qualities  developed 
through  their  shorter  term  of  helplessness.  But  the 
law  of  mortality,  which  smites  down  the  individual  and 
yet  spares  the  family,  tribe,  nation,  or  race,  keeps 
forcing  itself  persistently  upon  man's  attention.  It 
constantly  invades  this  sentiment  of  love  which  has 
been  naturally  evolved  through  family,  tribal,  and 
national  life,  thus  arresting  man's  attention  to  survival 


Superstition  29 

of  race  as  opposed  to  survival  of  self,  whether  he  will 
or  no.  If  death  never  invaded  this  sentiment,  man 
would  take  life  for  granted  and  never  think  about  the 
continuance  of  life,  or  survival,  whether  of  his  race  in 
this  world  or  of  those  he  has  loved  and  lost  in  some 
world  to  come.  This  idea  of  survival,  I  think  you 
will  find  at  the  core  of  all  early  man's  beliefs.  It  is 
the  meaning  of  the  word  superstition.  Says  a  writer: 
"Those  who  escaped  in  battle  or  survived  death  were 
called  superstites,  superstitiosi,  or  survivors.  Cicero 
says,  'they  who  prayed  all  day  that  their  children 
might  overlive  them  were  called  superstitious.'  Lac- 
tantius  objects  to  this  derivation,  but  says  the  word 
got  its  meaning  from  the  worship  of  deceased  parents 
and  relations  by  the  superstites  or  survivors,  or  from 
men  holding  the  memory  of  the  dead  in  superstitious 
veneration.  Thus  Cicero  and  Lactantius  agree  in 
connecting  the  origin  of  the  word  with  the  relations 
between  the  dead  and  the  living  who  survive  them. 
Cicero  gave  it  his  sanction  when  he  wished  to  conse- 
crate the  image  of  his  dead  daughter  to  the  gods,  who, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  aflSrm,  were  men  who  had  sur- 
vived death.  In  any  case  the  word  originated  in  some 
mysterious  connection  between  the  dead  and  the  living, 
the  deceased  and  those  who  survived,  the  world  that  is 
seen  and  the  world  that  is  unseen;  whether  it  might  be 
that  it  arose  from  the  '  promise  made  to  the  seed  of  the 
woman,'  and  it  was  considered  a  great  misfortune  to 
die  childless,  or  to  survive  one's  children;  or  that  the 
death  of  one  person  might  be  influenced  by  the  death 


30  Evolution  and  Religion 

of  another.     The  word  'survival,'  then,   best  defines 
*  superstition.'"  * 

Race  Survival 

You  have  seen  how  before  the  obscure  enemies  of 
his  Kfe,  known  now  as  disease  germs,  man  offered  his 
pathetic  prayers  or  uttered  his  childish  threats  to  the 
unseen  agencies  in  the  air  about  him.  You  have  seen 
how  he  deified  the  life-giving  sun  who  chased  away  all 
the  phantoms  of  the  night;  how  he  worshiped  heat  and 
cold;  the  divinity  which  brought  pestilence,  the  divinity 
which  brought  back  health;  the  divinity  which  brought 
famine,  the  divinity  which  brought  back  plenty;  the 
spirits  which  resided  in  thunderstorm,  earthquake, 
flood,  volcano,  and  conflagration.  Man  appears  to 
have  worshiped  everything  from  which  he  apprehended 
danger;  man  seems  also  to  have  worshiped  everything 
from  which  he  received  good,  in  the  sense  of  its  being 
favorable  to  life.  The  motive  of  his  worship  has 
apparently  been  either  fear  or  gratitude;  the  basis 
has  been  love:  fear  or  gratitude  for  those  whom  he 
loved,  always  not  excluding  himself.  The  immediate 
cause  of  his  worship  seems  to  have  been  ignorance  or 
helplessness  before  the  obscure,  the  mysterious,  the 
unknown,  the  terrible,  in  the  death-compelling  or  life- 
giving  agencies  which  encircled  him.  Among  these 
death-compelling  agencies  stood  certain  of  the  wild 
animals  also.  These,  too,  he  worshiped,  holding  them 
as  sacred.  But  all  through  this  deification  of  the  ideas 
1  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  XIV.  p.  94. 


Moral.  Ideas  31 

of  life  and  death  in  their  many  forms  his  motive  would 
appear  to  have  been  plain:  to  avert  death  from  those 
he  loved,  and  thus  wittingly  or  unwittingly  to  secure 
the  survival  of  his  race. 

Moral  Ideas 

It  is  here,  I  think,  that  we  can  most  satisfactorily 
account  for  the  moral  ideas  which  the  fears  and  loves 
wrought  through  this  evolutionary  struggle  have  de- 
veloped in  our  race.  For  as  man  progressed  upward, 
finding  many  enemies  in  the  path  of  his  survival,  you 
saw  how  he  duly  deified  the  wild  beasts  that  endangered 
his  life.  Then  followed  mysterious  diseases,  blasting 
heats,  freezing  colds,  panic-breeding  earthquakes,  vol- 
canoes, floods,  thunderstorms,  conflagrations,  the  spirits 
of  which  he  also  duly  attempted  to  pacify  by  sacrifice  and 
oblation.  Last  of  all  seems  to  have  come  the  idea  of 
spirits  of  good  as  opposed  to  these  powers  of  evil,  of 
divinities  which  brought  back  to  earth  warmth  after 
winter,  coolness  after  oppressive  summer  heat;  of 
spirits  which  gave  plenty  after  famine,  health  after 
pestilence,  peace  after  war;  of  spirits  of  good  which 
stilled  the  violence  of  passing  thunderstorms,  earth- 
quakes, volcanic  outbursts,  floods,  or  raging  conflagra- 
tions. In  other  words,  man  was  spiritualizing  the  idea 
of  survival  from  the  many  enemies  that  assailed  his 
life  or  the  lives  of  those  he  loved.  And  inextricably 
intertwined  with  it  came  the  new  idea,  likewise  born 
from  the  same  evolutionary  stress  of  life,  of  the  survival 
of  his  race  as  opposed  to  the  survival  of  himself,  an 


32  Evolution  and  Religion 

idea  apparently  equally  founded  upon  fear  of  life's 
enemies  and  upon  love  for  the  members  of  his  family 
or  elan.  Of  course  in  one  sense,  the  primary  sense, 
survival  of  race  was  directly  conditioned  for  a  while  on 
survival  of  self.  But  there  was  a  higher,  a  secondary 
sense,  wherein  man  found  that  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  subordinate  love  of  self  in  order  that  his  family, 
his  tribe,  his  race,  might  live.  Conduct  on  his  part 
which  should  be  thought  to  militate  against  this  sur- 
vival of  family,  clan,  or  nation  would  be  considered 
unmoral.  (The  word  morality  means,  etymologically, 
a  custom,  a  habit,  a  way  of  life.)  Conduct  on  his  part 
which  should  be  thought  to  favor  and  help  forward 
this  survival,  would  be  considered  moral.  This  con- 
viction percolating  through  society,  but  probably  first 
recognized  and  formulated  by  leaders  of  human  thought, 
is  what  in  my  opinion  gave  birth  to  the  root  idea  of  all 
our  moral  ideas.  It  seems  to  have  been  born,  like  all 
root  ideas,  out  of  race  experience. 

Sacrifice 

The  same  rudimentary  idea  of  morality  prevails,  as 
you  have  seen,  in  many  of  the  lower  animals.  They, 
however,  do  not  appear  to  possess  the  faculty  of  spir- 
itualizing either  the  unseen  powers  of  the  universe  nor 
the  moral  ideas  which  have  been  produced  in  them  by 
the  evolutionary  stress  of  life.  Hence  they  remain 
comparatively  stationary  as  regards  progress.  But 
man  spiritualizes  what  he  fears.  He  fears  the  natural 
enemies  of  his  life.     He  likewise  fears  his  own  moral 


Sacrifice  83 

ideas.  They  are  often  irksome  to  him.  They  form  a 
sort  of  spiritual  tyranny.  Why?  Simply  because, 
like  all  the  unseen  forces  which  miKtate  against  his 
survival,  they  seem  to  demand  sacrifice.  The  evolu- 
tion of  a  mother  willing  to  sacrifice  even  her  life,  if 
necessary,  for  the  sake  of  her  offspring,  is  followed 
naturally  by  the  evolution  of  a  father,  influenced  by  her 
example,  and  ready  to  lay  aside  the  purely  selfish  instinct 
of  self-preservation  in  order  to  preserve  the  life  of 
his  family.  Push  the  investigation  one  step  further 
into  the  family  clan  and  you  have  loyalty  to  tribe, 
whereby  individual  members  sacrifice  their  lives  for 
the  preservation  of  the  clan.  Another  step  brings  you 
to  the  idea  of  the  nation,  with  its  militant  patriotism. 
Still  another  step  introduces  you  to  the  idea  of  race  and 
race  loyalty.  In  all  these  enlarged  stages  of  man's 
upward  progress,  his  struggle  for  existence  becomes 
widened,  through  fear  and  love,  from  a  purely  personal 
struggle  for  self  to  a  struggle  for  others  as  well,  in 
family,  community,  national  and  race  life.  In  all  these 
successive,  or  concurrent,  steps  there  is  the  same  fun- 
damental idea,  that  of  sacrificing  the  personal  to  the 
general,  the  present  to  the  future,  which  in  reality 
seems  to  form  the  basis  of  all  moral  ideas.  In  other 
words,  a  very  tangible,  present,  personal  advantage  is 
given  up  for  a  possible  future  benefit  to  family,  clan, 
nation,  or  race.  Selfishness  gives  place  to  altruism. 
The  regard  of  and  for  others,  in  short,  becomes  man's 
creed  of  moral  and  reUgious  duty. 


34  Evolution  and  Religion 

Varying  Moral  Ideas 

In  speaking  of  one  of  the  lowest  peoples  on  earth  in 
the  evolutionary  scale  to-day  (but  whether  a  decadent 
race  or  simply  an  undeveloped  one  remains  yet  to  be 
proved),  Darwin  says:  "While  observing  the  barbarous 
inhabitants  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  it  struck  me  that  the 
possession  of  some  property,  a  fixed  abode,  and  the 
union  of  many  families  under  a  chief,  were  the  indis- 
pensable requisites  for  civilization."  ^  This  seems  to 
be  undoubtedly  true;  though  there  are  other  indis- 
pensable factors  as  well  which  appear  to  enter  into  the 
complex  problem  of  civilization.  But  confining  our- 
selves for  the  moment  to  his  three,  how  can  you  per- 
manently maintain  the  idea  of  the  sacredness  of  property 
rights  if  the  individual  has  not  yet  been  brought  through 
some  means  of  suasion,  moral  or  otherwise,  to  learn 
to  subdue  his  purely  selfish  passion  of  covetousness  ? 
How  can  you  maintain  the  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
home  and  family  life  if  the  individual  has  not  yet 
learned  to  control  his  purely  selfish  passion  of  lust? 
How  can  you  maintain  tribal  life  under  a  chief  if  the 
individual  has  not  yet  learned  to  subordinate  his  purely 
selfish  interests  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  community  ? 
This  self-control  by  the  individual  would  appear  to 
be  the  one  indispensable  basis  of  all  community  life, 
both  among  men  and  among  the  gregarious  animals 
as  well.  But  as  man's  mental  horizon  of  what  consti- 
tutes the  general  widens,  so  will  his  ideas  of  morality 
»  The  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  pp.  160,  161. 


Varying  Moral  Ideas  35 

broaden  and  become  enlarged.  This  apparently  would 
be  the  probable  explanation  of  many  of  the  varying 
codes  of  morals  which  to-day  puzzle  the  student  of 
history.  Robbery,  treachery,  murder,  within  the  hmits 
of  the  tribe,  were  regarded  always  as  unpardonable 
offenses.  When  exercised  toward  outsiders,  however, 
they  were  not  considered  crimes.  To  the  purely  mili- 
tant civilizations  of  early  Greece  and  Rome,  self-sacri- 
fice for  the  benefit  of  the  state  would  naturally  be  the 
highest  of  all  virtues.  To  the  Hebrew  law-giver  with 
his  clearer  insight  into  the  race  needs  of  the  future, 
righteousness,  or  right  living,  would  form  the  basic 
corner-stone  of  all  morality.  "  For  I  the  Lord  thy  God 
am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth 
generation  of  them  that  hate  me,  and  showing  mercy  unto 
a  thousand  generations  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep 
my  commandments.^^  If  a  man  has  only  reached  the 
stage  of  development  where  he  can  but  see  the  neces- 
sity of  subordinating  survival  of  self  to  survival  of 
family,  it  seems  inevitable  that  his  sense  of  duty  will 
be  circumscribed  by  his  narrower  mental  horizon  of 
sympathy.  If  a  man,  or  people,  have  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  stage  where  they  can  see  the  need  of 
subordinating  survival  of  self  to  the  survival  of  tribe, 
nation,  or  race,  then  their  sense  of  duty  will  become 
enlarged  to  correspond  with  their  enlarged  sympathy. 
One  love  will  apparently  not  drive  out  the  other, 
but  will  transcend  it.  At  times,  it  is  true,  these  larger 
loves  may  interfere  in  their  action  with  one  another; 


36  Evolution  and  Religion 

and  this  will  still  further  complicate  man's  moral  codes. 
Thus  a  man  may  hesitate  to  offer  his  life  a  sacrifice  to 
his  clan  or  country,  not  because  of  self-love,  but  on 
account  of  his  more  unselfish  love  of  family.  Or  a  man 
may  refuse  to  go  forth  to  battle  for  his  country  because 
of  his  larger  love  for  the  race. 

The  General  Good 

But  man's  ideas  of  morality  have  also  varied  widely 
as  regards  what  constitutes  the  general  good  of  the 
community.  Here  is  where  man's  imperfect,  self- 
deceiving  intellect  would  appear  to  have  often  played 
him  false.  His  social,  moral  instincts  impel  him  to 
place  the  general  welfare  in  advance  of  everything  else ; 
but  his  selfish,  tricky,  self-suflScient  intellect  will 
mislead  him,  if  it  possibly  can,  as  to  what  that  general 
welfare  really  is.  Those  rude  early  tribes  who  prac- 
tised infanticide  would  seem  to  have  done  so  from 
equally  honest  but  mistakenly  selfish  motives  with 
those  who  practise  race-suicide  to-day.  Those  primi- 
tive peoples  who  regarded  suicide  as  anything  but  dis- 
honorable would  appear  to  differ  only  slightly  from 
many  of  our  modern  clubmen  who  engage,  with  a 
spirit  of  senseless  bravado,  in  the  same  foolish  prac- 
tise —  only  in  a  more  leisurely  way,  in  a  sort  of  slow 
suicide.  Intemperance  and  licentiousness  both  seem 
to  be  self-destroying  errors  into  which  our  race  has 
fallen  largely  through  this  same  overweening  conceit  of 
intellect.  Certainly  the  brutes  with  their  less  developed 
intellects,  but  almost  equally  developed  social  instincts 


The  General  Good  37 

with  man,  would  appear  to  be  free  from  all  unnatural 
crimes  which  militate  directly  against  their  own  race 
survival.  "The  instincts  of  the  lower  animals,"  says 
Darwin,  "are  never  so  perverted  as  to  lead  them  reg- 
ularly to  destroy  their  own  offspring,"  ^  —  and,  he 
might  have  added,  "or  themselves,"  in  the  case  at 
least  of  the  higher  gregarious  animals.  A  thief  who 
preys  upon  his  own  kind,  a  sensualist  who  sacrifices  the 
young  of  his  or  her  own  race  to  his  or  her  selfish  lust,  a 
parasite  who  lives  upon  his  fellows,  in  a  word  the  spoilers 
and  exploiters  of  mankind,  would  seem  to  violate  the 
moral  law  of  their  own  race,  i.e,,  the  general  welfare, 
in  a  way  which  the  lowest  gregarious  animal  would  not 
be  guilty  of  habitually.  True,  the  lower  animals  will 
sometimes  "expel  a  wounded  animal  from  the  herd, 
or  gore  or  worry  it  to  death.  This  is  almost  the 
blackest  fact  in  natural  history,  unless  indeed  the 
explanation  which  has  been  suggested  is  true,  that  their 
instinct  or  reason  leads  them  to  expel  an  injured  com- 
panion lest  beasts  of  prey,  including  man,  should  be 
tempted  to  follow  the  troop,"  ^  —  thus  aiding  instead 
of  militating  against  race  survival,  thus  helping  on  the 
good  of  the  general.  Darwin  defined  the  term  "  gen- 
eral good  "  as  "  the  rearing  of  the  greatest  possible  num- 
ber of  individuals  in  full  vigor  and  health  and  with  all 
their  faculties  perfect,  under  the  conditions  to  which 
they  are  exposed."  ^  In  his  view  of  the  future  of  our 
race  he  would  seem  to  inchne  to  the  view  that  selec- 

^  The  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  p.  129. 

2  Ibid.  p.  73.  3  ilnd.  p.  94. 


38  Evolution  of  Religion 

tion  must  continue  to  be  an  important  factor  in  evo- 
lution, and  hence  that  it  is  not  well  to  check  the 
scope  of  that  principle  by  a  charitable  preservation  of 
the  incompetent.^  But  why  stop  merely  at  the  incom- 
petent ?  Do  not  the  spoilers  and  the  exploiters  of  our 
race,  the  criminal,  the  vicious,  the  parasitic  among 
mankind,  militate  equally,  if  not  more,  against  the 
general  good?  Does  not  the  selfishly  egotistical  class 
equally  jeopardize  the  survival  of  the  truly  fittest? 
Life  is  undoubtedly  a  fight,  a  struggle  for  existence; 
but  there  is  such  a  thing  as  fighting  fair  and  fighting 
foul.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  striking  below  the  belt, 
or  being  open  and  above-board  in  one's  blows.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  playing  the  game  squarely  and  letting 
the  best  man  win,  or  playing  crooked,  with  stacked 
cards  and  loaded  dice,  thus  allowing  the  lecher,  the 
thief,  and  the  parasite  to  issue  triumphant.  If  our 
view  of  mankind  is  not  to  rise  above  the  level  of  that 
of  a  sort  of  sublimated  "  stock  farm,"  in  all  conscience 
let  us  see  to  it  that  the  stock  farm  idea  be  carried  out  to 
its  rigorous  logical  conclusion.  Let  us  make  the  con- 
ditions of  the  game  as  severe  as  we  please,  but  let  us 
also  apply  those  conditions  with  rigid  impartiality  to 
all  alike.  Let  us  make  all  men  abide  by  the  rules  of 
the  game,  so  that  the  truly  fittest  shall  really  survive. 

Survival  of  the  Fittest 

You  have  seen,  therefore,  that  man's  intelligence  as 
well  as  man's  emotions  can  lead  him  occasionally  to 
1  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  IV.  p.  617. 


Survival  of  the  Fittest  39 

err  against  the  law  of  race  survival.  Mistakes  of 
intelligence  in  recognizing  what  constitutes  the  real 
general  good  would  seem  to  retard  his  progress  quite 
as  materially  as  excessive  emotionaUsm.  Whether  the 
evils  resulting  from  over-emotionalism  in  fear  and 
love  have  proved  any  greater  to  our  race  than  those 
resulting  from  defective  intellect  and  excess  of  im- 
agination, is  a  nice  question,  but  hardly  pertinent  to 
the  present  inquiry.  Few  things,  however,  are  more 
suggestive  to  a  thinking  mind  to-day  than  to  contem- 
plate the  heavy  self-complacency  with  which  the 
average  man  in  the  street  persists  in  misinterpreting 
Spencer's  catch-phrase,  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  It 
subtly  tickles  his  vanity  to  believe  that  he  is  one  of  the 
fittest,  i.e.,  the  present  best,  as  he  reads  the  intellectual 
legend,  evolved  out  of  a  prolonged  period  of  upward 
evolutionary  stress.  It  soothes  his  conscience  to 
believe  that  in  this  struggle  for  life  wherein  he  thinks 
he  has  issued  triumphant,  he  is  justified  in  adopting 
the  ethical  standards  of  the  jungle  as  between  differing 
races  of  animals.  Had  Spencer  realized  how  his 
catch-phrase  would  be  quoted  in  canting  self-justifica- 
tion by  every  semi-educated  exploiter  of  mankind  who 
prefers  to  remain  animal  and  prey  upon  human  beings 
rather  than  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  manhood,  I  imagine 
he  would  gladly  have  amplified  or  qualified  the  phrase 
to  meet  such  cases  of  limited  intelligence.  For  these  are 
the  ones  that  sin  against  the  survival  of  their  own  kind, 
those  who  sneer  or  scoff  at  the  ideals  of  their  own  race. 
And  yet  it  would  not  seem  to  require  superhuman 


40  Evolution  and  Religion 

wisdom  to  see  on  whose  side  besotted  folly  lies.  As 
you  instinctively  know,  one  sane,  practical  idealist  in 
a  community  is  worth  in  point  of  social  efficiency  a  ton 
of  such  self-blinded  egoists.  The  fittest  to  survive  will 
indeed  survive,  but  this  is  very  different  from  imagining 
that  in  our  present  concededly  imperfect  stage  of  evo- 
lutionary development,  every  living  organism  to-day  is 
necessarily  one  of  the  best.  Our  race  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  reached  perfection  yet.  On  the  contrary, 
we  are  being  tried  out  daily,  hourly,  by  a  relent- 
less evolutionary  process  under  which  degenerates  of 
all  kinds,  mental,  moral,  physical,  must  inevitably  be 
ultimately  wiped  out.  All  that  survival  of  the  fittest 
appears  to  mean,  therefore,  is  that  those  types  most 
fitted  to  withstand  life's  enemies  will  continue  to  live 
and  multiply,  while  those  less  adapted  will  disappear. 
Hence,  did  these  imperfectly  developed  or  decadent 
specimens  of  our  race  but  know  it.  Nature  is  as  re- 
morselessly weeding  out  them,  or  their  posterity, 
through  their  very  vices,  as  she  is  the  consumptive  and 
the  anemic  among  individuals,  or  the  dying  races  among 
the  peoples  of  the  world. 

Humanity 

If  I  were  asked  to  name  the  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic of  our  modern  Western  civilization  as  contrasted 
with  those  that  have  immediately  preceded  it,  I  should 
answer  unhesitatingly,  that  it  appears  to  consist  mainly 
in  an  increased  regard  for  all  forms  of  life,  both  animal 
and   human.     If  the   evolutionary  theory   had   done 


Humanity  41 

nothing  else,  it  would  at  least  deserve  our  lasting 
gratitude  for  having  enlarged  man's  conception,  and 
strengthened  his  conviction,  of  the  intimate  kinship 
between  all  forms  of  created  being.  Life  seems  to  be 
the  one  undoubtedly  sacred  thing  in  life.  What  this 
world  needed  was  apparently  a  new  baptism  into  this 
sacredness  of  all  life  which  is  not  inimical  to  higher 
forms  of  life.  "  Thou  shall  not  kill,''  would  appear 
to  have  been  confined,  as  a  commandment  in  man's 
moral  law,  not  to  man  alone.  It  seems  to  have  been 
meant  to  extend  to  all  forms  of  created  life  which  are 
not  pernicious  per  se  in  the  sense  of  militating  against 
man's  survival,  or  which  cannot  be  used  to  further  that 
survival.  Among  the  more  backward  peoples  of  Chris- 
tendom where  ignorance  is  the  rule  among  the  masses, 
brutality  still  undoubtedly  prevails;  but  even  here  the 
leaven  of  humanity  is  working  slowly  but  surely.  In 
the  more  advanced  nations  of  Christendom,  the  phe- 
nomenon is  so  patent  that  at  times  it  assumes  almost 
an  absurdly  exaggerated  aspect.  The  people  of  the 
East,  with  their  religious  belief  in  metempsychosis, 
would  appear  to  be  decidedly  in  advance  of  the  more 
backward  Western  nations  in  this  respect.  And  yet, 
even  among  the  latter  we  have  had  from  the  beginning 
the  ideal  uttered  by  the  founder  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion (and  hence  to  be  received  with  the  reverence  due 
to  the  utterances  of  all  unveilers  of  new  evolutionary 
ideals)  of  the  humble  sparrows,  "  not  one  of  whom  shall 
fall  on  the  ground  without  your  Father,''  ''not  one  of 
whom  is  forgotten  in  the  sight  of  Him"  who  ''feedeth 


4^  Evolution  and  Religion 

the  ravens,  though  they  sow  not,  neither  reap,''  who 
"clotheth  the  lilies  of  the  field,  though  they  toil  not, 
neither  do  they  spin,"  True,  the  evolutionary  theory 
of  a  struggle  for  existence  has  opened  men's  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  certain  of  these  forms  of  lower  life  (like  dis- 
ease germs)  would  appear  to  be  inimical  to  man's 
survival,  and  hence  render  it  his  duty  to  attempt  to 
stamp  them  out  as  such.  But  this  is  apparently  no 
more  true  of  pernicious  forms  of  lower  animal  or  vege- 
table life  than  it  is  of  pernicious  forms  of  human  life, 
which,  either  through  degeneracy  or  imperfect  develop- 
ment, assail  the  general  well-being  and  threaten  the 
survival  of  the  truly  fittest.  Nature  seems  to  be  already 
engaged  in  slowly  blotting  out  or  obliterating  these 
degenerate,  pernicious  breeds  among  mankind.  But 
man  is  kin  to  Nature;  he  is  part  of  Nature.  He  should 
therefore  apparently  assist  Nature  in  exterminating  or, 
better,  sterilizing  all  decadent  breeds  which  militate 
against  the  general  welfare.  We  attempt  to  do  this 
in  a  slipshod,  haphazard  sort  of  way  at  present,  with 
our  imperfectly  developed,  and  still  more  imperfectly 
administered,  criminal  laws.  The  trouble  would  seem 
to  be  that  we  do  not  begin  to  go  far  enough  in  the  truly 
scientific  application  of  our  best  knowledge  to  the 
subject  of  properly  eradicating  the  criminal,  the  vicious, 
the  parasitic,  and  the  worthless. 

A  Dilemma 

Man's  reason,  therefore,  seems  to  bring  us  logically  to 
the  point  where  we  must  view  the  world  as  a  sort  of 


A  Dilemma  43 

huge  stock  farm,  and  rigorously  adopt  for  our  ideal 
toward  the  race  the  scientific  methods  of  stock  breeding. 
Man's  emotions,  you  will  find,  bring  us  to  the  point 
where  we  must  regard  the  race  rather  as  one  great 
human  family,  where  kindlier  methods  are  to  prevail. 
True,  governmental  force  in  the  family  life  appears  to 
be  likewise  a  necessity  in  the  extreme  case  of  degenerate 
members  who  otherwise  would  assail  or  destroy  the 
organism  as  a  whole.  But  you  can  readily  see  how, 
where  love  rules,  law  will  be  administered  not  in  a 
cold-blooded,  scientific  spirit  (which  would  probably 
defeat  its  own  ends),  but  with  a  desire  to  conserve 
through  proper  reforming  agencies  the  family  life 
entire  including,  when  possible,  that  of  the  offender 
himself.  Unless,  however,  human  society  can  be  per- 
suaded or  induced  somehow  to  accept  this  enlarged 
family  ideal  as  its  method  of  dealing  with  the  world's 
present  problem  of  vice,  crime,  and  parasitism,  it  would 
seem  as  if  logically  and  ultimately  the  race  would  find 
itself  compelled,  as  a  matter  of  pure  self-defense,  to 
assist  Nature  in  obliterating  all  these  decadent  breeds 
which  militate  against  the  general  welfare.  If  the  social 
organism  were  to-day  following  out  solely  its  intellec- 
tual beliefs  to  their  rigorous  logical  conclusion,  it  would 
even  now  be  engaged  in  this  relentless,  ruthless  task. 
The  welfare  of  the  general  must  apparently  be  preferred 
to  that  of  the  individual.  If,  therefore,  the  individual 
is  guilty  of  incorrigible  insubordination,  if  he  is  perma- 
nently unwilling  to  subordinate  himself  to  the  good  of 
the  general,  then  the  general  will  have  to  do  it  for  him. 


44  Evolution  and  Religion 

It  is  an  intellectual  cul  de  sac;  I  do  not  see  how  you 
can  possibly  escape  it.  But  fortunately  for  these  ojffen- 
ders  against  the  social  organism,  man  is  not  always 
strictly  logical.  Being  complex,  he  allows  his  emotions 
to  influence  his  cold  reason. 


Religion  * 

I  have  already  referred  to  man's  inveterate  tendency 
to  spiritualize  the  many  enemies  that  stand  in  the  way 
of  his  survival,  and  likewise  to  deify  the  friendly  powers 
that  seem  to  help  toward  that  survival.  Whatever  is 
mysterious,  unknown,  life-giving,  terrible,  or  death-com- 
pelling, as  you  saw,  becomes  a  hidden  divinity  to  be 
propitiated  by  sacrifice ;  and  how  perverted  the  sacrifi- 
cial idea  might  become  in  man's  mind,  Moloch  and 
other  juggernauts  only  too  well  attest.  The  motive  of 
this  tendency  appeared  to  be  fear  or  gratitude,  its 
basis,  love,  as  we  noticed  in  the  way  in  which  man 
deified  all  the  powers  that  militated  against,  or  helped 
toward,  his  own  or  his  family's  continued  existence. 
To  him  now,  out  of  these  very  conditions  of  life  and 
death,  came  the  new  startling  idea  (forced  constantly 
and  relentlessly  upon  his  attention  by  the  inevitable 
law  of  mortality),  that  he  must  subordinate  individual 
survival  of  self  to  survival  of  race.  The  idea  stood  as 
resolutely  across  the  path  of  self-survival  as  any  one  of 
the  many  enemies  of  his  life.  Individual  survival  was 
ultimately  impossible  through  the  very  law  of  mor- 
tality common   to  all  human  beings;  but  survival  of 


Religion  45 

race  was  possible,  and  could  even  be  promoted,  by  the 
subordination  thereto  of  the  individual's  survival.  In 
its  essence,  therefore,  the  idea  was  as  mysterious,  as 
death-compelling,  as  any  terrible  wild  beast  of  the 
jungle,  as  any  unknown  obscure  scourge  which  militated 
against  his  own  survival.  For  the  race,  it  was  as  Ufe- 
giving  as  any  friendly  power  which  helped  toward  race 
survival.  The  idea  demanded  sacrifice.  Man,  there- 
fore, deified  it  as  a  sacred  duty.  And  to  deify  an  idea 
is  to  make  a  religion  out  of  it.  For  you  will  find  that 
the  sanctions  of  religion  ever  go  to  reinforce  the  dictates 
of  morality.  In  fact,  morality  without  religion  (for  so 
man  seems  to  be  constituted)  appears  bound  to  become 
a  dead  letter  in  the  course  of  one  or  two  generations  of 
mankind.  Conduct  on  a  man's  part  which  is  thought 
to  militate  against  the  survival  of  family,  tribe  or  nation, 
comes  to  be  regarded  not  only  as  unmoral  but  as  sinful; 
as  deadly,  blighting  sin.  In  other  words,  such  conduct 
is  frowned  upon  by  the  God  in  man,  by  the  supreme 
evolutionary  ideal  of  love  in  mankind,  of  this  universal 
instinct  of  race  preservation.  Conduct  on  a  man's 
part  which  is  thought  to  help  forward  this  survival 
comes  to  be  considered  not  only  as  morally  correct 
but  as  religious.  In  other  words,  it  is  approved  of  by 
the  God  in  man,  again  the  same  supreme  ideal  of  love, 
of  the  universal  race  instinct  which  so  wisely  places 
race  survival  at  the  forefront  as  the  all-important  thing 
in  life. 


46  Evolution  and  Religion 

Self-Sacrifice 

One  diflference,  however,  you  will  note  between  this 
new  possibly  death-compelling  idea  which  man  deifies, 
.  and  the  other  enemies  of  his  life  which  he  has  hitherto 
deified.  They  militated  not  only  against  the  survival 
of  the  individual,  but  against  that  of  the  race  as  well. 
This  new  idea  of  survival  of  race  as  opposed  to  survival 
of  self,  on  the  other  hand,  militates  against  the  survival 
of  the  individual,  but  its  purpose  is  that  the  race  may 
live.  This  survival  of  race  was,  it  is  true,  equally 
man's  object  when  he  offered  sacrifice  to  his  other 
death-compelling  enemies.  But  you  will  readily  see 
how  profoundly  the  new  idea  will  modify  the  nature  of 
his  sacrifice.  Instead  of  the  necessity  of  laying  violent 
hands  upon  others,  as  well  as  upon  himself,  and  sacri- 
ficing them,  willing  or  unwilling,  for  the  sake  of  the 
general  welfare  —  a  thought  which  often  led  to  un- 
speakable cruelty,  and  was  summed  up  in  the  pithy 
aphorism,  "  It  is  better  that  one  should  die  rather  than 
that  all  should  perish "  —  man's  central  idea  becomes 
now  the  necessity  of  sacrificing  himself  for  the  good  of 
his  family,  tribe,  or  nation.  In  other  words,  the  idea 
of  sacrifice  has  begun  to  give  place  to  that  of  self- 
sacrifice.  And  this  would  seem  to  mean  a  wonderful 
step  forward  in  man's  religio-moral  development. 

Human  Beliefs 

We  come  now  naturally  to  the  religious  beliefs  of 
mankind,  great  creeds  or  systems  whereby  this  supreme 


Human  Beliefs  47 

duty  of  subordinating  the  personal  to  the  general,  the 
present  to  the  future,  has  ever  been  sought  to  be  in- 
culcated. On  this  point,  as  I  am  well  aware,  some 
great  thinkers  of  our  race  have  taken  the  stand  that 
nothing  can  be  profitably  said,  all  religion  being,  as 
they  insist,  incapable  of  proof.  If  by  rehgion  they 
mean  human  theology,  or  man's  necessarily  fallible 
attempts  to  reduce  the  infinite  to  precise  intellectual 
formulae  of  his  own  devising,  their  contention  is  meas- 
urably granted.  But  religion  does  not  mean  that  to 
me.  Other  thinkers,  again,  affect  to  despise  religion. 
They  would  seem  to  be  even  more  unwise.  The 
principle  of  selection  never  would  have  seized  upon 
religion,  never  would  have  developed  it  through  all 
these  centuries,  as  it  has  done,  unless  reUgion  had  a 
most  important,  a  vital  bearing  on  that  principle.  And 
if  I  may  be  allowed  to  mildly  make  the  suggestion, 
the  principle  of  selection  is  possibly  a  good  deal  more 
worthy  of  regard  when  it  comes  to  deal  with  the  deep, 
intricate  subject  of  man's  survival  than  any  individual's 
intellect  no  matter  how  profound.  Of  course,  when  I 
say  that  the  religions  of  mankind  have  sought  to  incul- 
cate the  supreme  duty  of  subordinating  self  to  the  good 
of  the  general,  I  mean  the  subordination  of  self  with- 
in reason.  To  be  constantly  preferring  the  good  of 
others  to  the  exclusion  of  self  in  the  daily  struggle  for 
existence  is  manifestly  an  impossible  absurdity.  It 
would  put  a  stop  to  the  play  of  self-interest,  the  most 
powerful  lever  apparently  that  moves  mankind.  No 
religion  that  I  know  of  has  ever  demanded  that  we 


48  Evolution  and  Religion 

should  love  our  neighbor  better  than  ourselves,  that 
we  should  do  to  others  more  than  we  would  have 
them  do  to  us.  That  would  be  idealism  and  gener- 
osity run  mad.  It  would  mean  ultimately,  if  feasible 
(which  it  is  not),  the  extinction  of  the  race.  But  what 
the  subordination  of  self  to  the  general  has  apparently 
meant  in  all  the  religions  of  the  world  is,  that  when 
the  personal  advantage  of  the  individual  comes  into 
conflict  with,  or  is  antagonized  by,  the  good  of  the 
general,  the  former  must  yield,  the  latter  must  prevail. 
Hence,  the  subordination  of  self  to  the  general  is  a 
controlling  factor  on  the  play  of  individual  self-interest, 
a  restraint  in  family  life,  tribal  life,  national  life,  and 
race  life.  And  that  is  precisely  what  religion  means, 
I  think,  a  restraint. 

Two  Views  of  Religion 

There  are  two  possible  views  to  take  of  the  religions 
of  mankind.  One  is  that  they  have  acted  solely  as  a 
clog,  a  drag,  on  the  proper  development  of  our  race. 
The  other  is  that  they  have  aided  in  that  development. 
In  man's  worship  or  superstitious  regard  for  the  more 
dangerous  forms  of  animal  life,  it  would  seem  at  first 
blush  as  though  this  widespread,  primitive  belief  had 
most  unmistakably  mihtated  against  his  survival.  In 
man's  present  soft-hearted  benevolence  towards  the 
incompetent,  the  selfish,  the  vicious,  and  the  crim- 
inal of  his  race,  there  would  seem  to  be  a  similar  weak- 
ness of  the  emotions  which  works  against  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.     But,  after  all,  this  is  apparently  only  a 


Two  Views  of  Religion  49 

superficial  view  of  the  phenomenoii.  For,  however 
much  man's  reUgions  may  have  been  marred  by  intel- 
lectual errors,  superstitious  beliefs,  revolting  cruelties, 
or  gross  practises,  at  their  core  there  always  appears  to 
have  been  some  glimmering  of  the  principle  of  altruism; 
and  progress,  as  we  have  seen,  seems  to  depend  on 
altruism.  Sacrifice  seems  always  to  have  been  accom- 
panied sooner  or  later  by  self-sacrifice.  The  purely 
selfish  instinct  of  the  individual  has  become  merged  in 
the  higher  social  instinct  of  the  general  welfare,  whether 
the  general  be  confined  to  family,  clan,  nation,  or  race. 
I  confidently  challenge  any  one  to  point  out  to-day  a 
single  tribe  of  human  beings  so  degraded,  so  degenerate, 
or  so  undeveloped,  that  it  has  succeeded  as  yet  in  throw- 
ing off  this  yoke  of  duty  to  the  general  good  in  more 
or  less  Kmited  degree.  Even  where  man  wanders  about 
in  detached  family  groups  of  two  or  three  at  the  most, 
where  he  has  not  yet  apparently  risen  to  the  tribal  idea, 
where  his  intellectual  faculties  are  so  low  that  he  cannot 
count  above  two,  this  sense  of  the  religious  duty  of 
subordination  of  the  individual  to  the  general  family 
welfare  appears  to  prevail.  He  must  occasionally 
meet  in  common  council;  he  must  unite  for  common 
defense.^  Co-operation  seems  to  be  forced  upon  him 
by  the  very  conditions  of  his  life.  It  would  appear 
to  be  precisely  the  same  instinct  of  race  preservation 
which  rules  among  the  higher  social  quadrumana  and 
insects,  but  the  distinction  is  that  man  raises  it  through 
his  ever-advancing  reason  from  an  instinct  to  an  intel- 
1  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  p.  81. 


50  Evolution  and  Religion 

ligent,  conscious  duty,  and  again  through  his  ever- 
widening  spirit  from  a  moral  duty  to  a  spirituaHzed, 
deified  rehgion. 

Fetichism 

Fetichism,  such  as  we  see  in  Africa  to-day,  seems  to 
be  the  lowest  of  all  forms  of  existing  religions,  a  super- 
stitious worship  of  material  things,  or  fetiches,  wherein 
spirits  are  supposed  to  abide.  Closely  connected  with 
the  belief  in  magic  and  witchcraft,  necromancy  and 
spiritism,  it  appears  to  be  based  mainly  on  fear  of  the 
many  enemies,  seen  and  unseen,  which  beset  man  in 
his  struggle  for  existence.  Survivals  of  this  early 
primitive  religion  may  be  easily  witnessed,  even  among 
so-called  civilized  peoples  to-day,  in  their  countless 
objects  of  superstitious  regard.  As  the  possible  basis, 
however,  from  which  all  religion  has  sprung,  it  would 
seem  to  deserve  as  kindly  a  notice  as  the  humble  amoeba 
in  our  larger  view  of  the  evolution  of  life.  For  is  it  not 
well  to  remember,  in  the  words  of  a  higher  form  of 
religion  (reading  the  words  always  in  their  true  trans- 
posed evolutionary  sense),  that  ''the  fear  of  the  Lord  is 
the  beginning  of  wisdom "  ?  or,  in  the  words  of  a  still 
higher,  a  kindlier  form  of  religion,  that  "  it  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God "  ?  And 
yet,  even  in  this  humble,  lowly  form  of  religion,  there 
are  fetiches  to  guard  the  family  interests  separate  from 
the  individual  fetich  with  its  purely  personal,  selfish 
interests.  Says  a  writer:^  "Respect  for  the  family 
1  Nassau,  Fetichism  in  West  Africa^  pp.  158-160. 


Fetichism  51 

fetich  is  cognate  to  the  worship  of  the  spirits  of  ances- 
tors. Among  the  Barotse  of  South  Africa,  'for  this 
worship  they  have  altars  in  their  huts  made  of  branches, 
on  which  they  place  human  bones,  but  they  have  no 
images,  pictures,  or  idols.  In  some  cases  the  bones 
of  a  beloved  father  or  mother  are  kept  in  a  wooden 
chest,  for  which  a  small  house  is  provided,  where  the 
son  or  daughter  goes  statedly  to  hold  communication 
with  their  spirits.  They  do  not  pretend  to  have  any 
audible  response  from  them,  but  it  is  a  relief  to  their 
minds  in  their  more  serious  moods  to  go  and  pour  out 
all  the  sorrows  of  their  hearts  in  the  ear  of  a  revered 
parent.  This  belief,  however  much  of  superstition  it 
involves,  exerts  a  very  powerful  influence  upon  the 
social  character  of  the  people.'  ^  In  the  Benga  tribe, 
just  north  of  the  equator,  in  West  Africa,  this  family 
fetich  is  known  by  the  name  of  Yaka.  .  .  .  The  Yaka 
is  appealed  to  in  family  emergencies.  Suppose,  for 
instance,  that  one  member  has  recently  done  something 
wrong,  e.g.,  alone  in  the  forest,  he  has  met  and  killed  a 
member  of  another  family,  devastated  a  neighbor's 
plantation,  or  committed  any  other  crime,  and  is  un- 
known to  the  community  as  the  oflFender.  But  the 
powerful  Yaka  of  the  injured  family  has  brought 
disease  or  death,  or  some  other  affliction,  upon  the 
offender's  family.  They  are  dying  or  otherwise  suffer- 
ing, and  they  do  not  know  the  reason  why.  After  the 
failure  of  ordinary  medicines  or  personal  fetiches  to 
relieve  or  heal  or  prevent  the  continuance  of  the  evil, 
1  Wilson,  Western  Ajrica,  p.  393  et  seq.    Nassau,  p.  160. 


52  Evolution  and  Religion 

the  hidden  Yaka  is  brought  out  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
offender's  family.  A  doctor  is  called  in  consultation, 
the  Yaka  is  to  be  opened,  and  its  ancestral  relic  con- 
tents appealed  to.  At  this  point  the  fears  of  the  offender 
overcome  him,  and  he  privately  calls  aside  the  doctor 
and  the  older  members  of  the  clan.  He  takes  them 
to  a  quiet  spot  in  the  forest  and  confesses  what  he  has 
done,  taking  them  to  the  garden  he  has  devastated,  or 
to  the  spot  where  he  had  hidden  the  remains  of  the 
person  he  had  killed.  If  this  confession  were  made  to 
the  public,  so  that  the  injured  family  became  aware  of 
it,  his  own  life  would  be  at  stake.  But  making  it  to  his 
Yaka,  and  to  only  the  doctor  and  chosen  representa- 
tives of  his  family,  they  are  bound  to  keep  his  secret: 
the  doctor  on  professional  grounds,  and  his  relatives 
on  the  ground  of  family  solidarity.  The  problem,  then, 
is  for  the  doctor  to  make  what  seems  like  an  expia- 
tion." ' 

Symbol- Worship 

Over  Symbol-worship,  or  the  deification  of  the  re- 
productive powers  of  Nature,  we  need  not  linger  long. 
It  again  marks  the  infancy  of  our  race,  showing  man's 
inveterate  tendency  to  deify  whatsoever  is  mysterious 
and  unknown  in  connection  with  life,  whatever  is  life- 
giving,  as  well  as  what  is  terrible  and  death-compelling. 
Its  influence  may  be  readily  traced  in  the  primitive 
nature-religions  of  Egypt,  India,  Assyria,  Phoenicia, 
Greece,  Italy,  Scandinavia,  Spain,  Mexico,  Central 
1  Nassau,  Fetichism  in  West  Ajrica,  p.  163. 


The  Great  Religions  53 

America,  and  Peru.  It  prevails  to-day  in  its  grosser 
forms  in  the  temples  of  Siva,  and  among  some  of  the 
savage  tribes  of  both  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 
Symbolism,  like  fear,  apparently  enters  into  all  reh- 
gions,  often  forming  the  most  impressive  part  of  their 
outward  ceremonies.^  And  yet,  the  fact  that  in  many 
of  these  comparatively  high  civilizations  of  ancient 
times  it  was  accompanied  by  a  high  order  of  family, 
tribal,  and  national  life,  involving  the  absolutely  in- 
dispensable virtues  of  unselfishness,  loyalty,  and 
patriotism,  would  seem  to  go  to  show  most  unmistak- 
ably that,  when  divested  of  its  grossness,  there  was  in 
addition  something  at  its  core  which  likewise  involved 
the  co-operative  principle  of  altruism.  That  that 
something  was  the  underlying  religio-moral  idea  which 
has  been  forced  upon  mankind  by  the  struggle  for 
existence  which  is  the  invariable  condition  of  all  human 
life:  the  idea  of  survival  of  race  as  opposed  to  survival 
of  self,  the  supreme,  imperative  necessity  of  subordinat- 
ing self-interest  to  the  general  welfare,  will,  I  think,  be 
readily  admitted  by  those  familiar  with  the  early  history 
of  these  bygone  peoples. 

The  Great  Religions 

But  when  we  come  to  the  beautiful  twin  system  of 
Zoroaster,  with  its  wondrous  spirit  of  purity  breathed 
through  a  noble  liturgy,  to  the  spiritual  heights  of 
Brahmanism,  to  the  lofty  spirit  of  Buddhism,  to  the 
reverence  for  parents  and  worship  of  the  general  well- 

*  Ancient  Symbol-Warship,  Westropp  and  Wake,  N.  Y.,  1874. 


54  Evolution  and  Religion 

being  and  of  common  sense  in  Confucianism,  to  the 
study  of  life  and  death  in  the  rehgion  of  Egypt,  to  the 
regard  for  law,  order,  and  justice  in  the  religious  con- 
stitution of  Rome,  to  the  adoration  of  beauty,  strength, 
and  wisdom  in  the  fair  humanities  of  Greece,  to  the 
worship  of  freedom  and  courage  in  the  old  Norse 
Eddas,  —  then  the  evolutionary  curtain  may  be  said 
to  have  risen  indeed.  Here  we  may  see  the  evolutionary 
ideals  of  each  people  portrayed  so  that  he  who  run;? 
may  read. 

The  General  Welfare 

And  you  will  notice  that  the  same  idea  which  ap- 
peared to  be  the  basis  of  the  primitive  religions  of  the 
world  likewise  pervades  all  these  higher  religions,  i.e., 
the  duty  of  subordinating  self  to  others,  the  supreme 
need  of  personal  self-sacrifice  for  the  general  good. 
The  appeal  in  them  is  ever  from  the  individual  to  the 
general,  from  the  present  to  the  future.  Of  course, 
man's  idea  of  the  "  general "  will  vary  according  to  the 
evolutionary  stage  of  progress  which  he  has  reached. 
At  times,  it  may  be  confined,  as  I  have  already  pointed 
out,  to  his  immediate  family;  at  others,  it  will  extend  to 
include  his  tribe;  then,  his  nation;  last  of  all,  his  race. 
And  as  this  idea  enlarges,  so  will  his  moral  ideals,  his 
sense  of  duty,  become  extended;  so  will  his  religion 
become  nobler,  purer,  higher.  Early  Judaism,  Mo- 
hammedanism, two  religions,  the  one  growing  out  of 
the  other,  which  taught  a  pure  monotheism,  insist 
equally  upon  the  duty  of  personal  self-sacrifice  for  the 


Buddhism  55 

general  welfare.  True,  their  idea  of  the  general  is  too 
often  circumscribed  by  a  narrow  tribal,  national,  or 
sectarian  feeling;  as  witnessed  in  Jewish  prejudice 
against  Canaanite,  Samaritan,  and  Gentile,  or  in  Mos- 
lem hatred  of  infidel  dogs.  But  even  in  one  of  them  there 
are  occasional  premonitions  of  the  idea  that  the  general 
ought  to  include  the  entire  human  race.  Not  till  we 
come  to  the  visions  of  the  Jewish  prophets,  to  Bud- 
dhism, and  to  Christianity,  however,  do  we  find  this 
idea  in  its  full  perfection.  The  higher  teachings  of 
Israel,  the  teachings  of  Gautama,  and  those  of  Jesus, 
for  the  first  time  in  human  history,  appear  to  have  in- 
sisted upon  the  supreme  necessity,  the  religious  duty, 
of  subordinating  each  individual  self  to  the  good  of  the 
entire  race. 


Buddhism 

Buddhism  was  a  revolt  from  Brahmanism,  the 
revolt  of  the  spirit  of  humanity  against  the  spirit  and 
tyranny  of  caste.  Brahmanism  had  indeed  inculcated 
man's  duties  to  a  fellow-Brahman;  Buddhism  extended 
and  enlarged  them  to  include  all  created  beings.  Says 
Max  Miiller:  "Gautama  addressed  himself  to  castes 
and  outcasts.  He  promised  salvation  to  all;  and  he 
commanded  his  disciples  to  preach  his  doctrine  in  all 
places  and  to  all  men.  A  sense  of  duty,  extending 
from  the  narrow  limits  of  the  house,  the  village,  and 
the  country  to  the  widest  circle  of  mankind;  a  feeling 
of  sympathy  and  brotherhood  towards  all  men;  the 


56  Evolution  and  Religion 

idea,  in  fact,  of  humanity,  was  in  India  first  pronounced 
by  Buddha."  ^ 

Atheism 

A  certain  element  of  grim  humor  was  lent  to  Buddha's 
excessive  revolt  against  the  overwrought  spiritualism 
and  ritualistic  tyranny  of  Brahmanism  by  the  fact  that 
he  went  so  far  as  to  ignore,  if  not  deny,  God.  But,  in 
revenge,  his  followers  soon  made  short  work  of  this 
cardinal  omission  by  turning  around  and  practically 
deifying  the  Buddha  himself.  It  is  true,  their  more 
advanced  thinkers  claim  that  he  is  not  a  God,  but  only 
the  ideal  of  what  any  man  may  become.  Yet  when 
we  consider  the  exaggerated  adoration  paid  to  the 
topes  wherein  his  relics  are  reputed  to  Ue,  and  to  his 
images  in  the  temples;  when  we  note  the  sacrificial 
offerings  and  prayers  addressed  to  him  2500  years 
after  his  death,  it  becomes  very  difficult  to  grasp  this 
subtle,  shadowy  distinction  between  the  ideal  man 
and  the  deified  man. 

Universal  Sympathy 

But  however  this  may  be,  in  the  words  of  another 
writer:  "The  element  in  Buddhism  which  more  than 
any  other,  perhaps,  gave  it  an  advantage  over  all  sur- 
rounding religions,  and  led  to  its  surprising  extension, 
was  the  spirit  of  universal  charity  and  sympathy  that 
it  breathed,  as  contrasted  with  the  exclusiveness  of 
caste.  In  this  respect,  it  held  much  the  same  relation 
1  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop^  vol.  I.  p.  252. 


Commandments  57 

to  Brahmanism  that  Christianity  did  to  Judaism.  It 
was  in  fact  a  reaction  against  the  exclusiveness  and 
formaUsm  of  Brahmanism  —  an  attempt  to  render  it 
more  cathoHc,  and  to  throw  off  its  intolerable  burden 
of  ceremonies.  Buddhism  did  not  expressly  abolish 
caste,  but  only  declared  that  all  followers  of  the  Buddha 
who  embraced  the  religious  life  were  thereby  released 
from  its  restrictions ;  in  the  bosom  of  a  community  who 
had  all  equally  renounced  the  world,  high  and  low,  the 
twice-born  Brahman  and  the  outcast  were  brethren. 
This  was  the  very  way  Christianity  dealt  with  the 
slavery  of  the  ancient  world.  The  opening  of  its  ranks 
to  all  classes  and  to  both  sexes  —  for  women  were 
admitted  to  equal  hopes  and  privileges  with  men,  and 
one  of  Gautama's  early  female  disciples  is  to  be  the 
supreme  Buddha  of  a  future  cycle  —  no  doubt  gave 
Buddhism  one  great  advantage  over  Brahmanism."  ^ 

Commandments 

The  commandments  which  Buddha  laid  down  for 
all  men  in  order  that  they  might  not  suffer  greater 
misery  in  subsequent  reincarnations,  were  five. 

1.  Do  not  kill. 

2.  Do  not  steal. 

3.  Do  not  commit  adultery. 

4.  Do  not  lie. 

5.  Do  not  be  drunken. 

On  those  entering  the  religious  life  in  the  pursuit  of 
Nirvana,  he  enjoined  five  more. 

1  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  III.  p.  157. 


58  Evolution  and  Religion 

1.  Abstain  from  all  solid  food  after  midday. 

2.  Abstain  from  dances,  singing,  and  theatrical  per- 
formances. 

3.  Abstain  from  all  ornaments  or  perfumery  in  dress. 

4.  Abstain  from  a  lofty  and  luxurious  couch. 

5.  Abstain  from  taking  either  gold  or  silver. 

For  the  monks  or  ascetics  he  added  five  others,  still 
more  severe. 

1.  Dress  in  rags,  sewed  with  your  own  hands,  using 
a  yellow  cloak  to  throw  over  your  rags. 

2.  Eat  the  simplest  of  food,  owning  nothing  save 
what  you  may  receive  in  your  wooden  bowl  by  asking 
alms  from  door  to  door. 

3.  Partake  of  only  one  meal  a  day  and  that  before 
noon. 

4.  Live  in  the  forests  for  a  part  of  each  year,  and 
under  no  shelter  but  the  shadow  of  a  tree,  sitting  on 
your  carpet  even  during  sleep;  to  lie  down  is  forbidden. 

5.  You  may  enter  neighboring  villages  to  beg  for 
food,  but  you  must  return  to  your  forests  before  night- 

Essential  Virtues 

The  duties  of  man  as  a  peacemaker  are  strictly  en- 
joined; the  duty  of  humility,  the  duty  of  hospitality  to 
strangers.  The  essential  virtues  demanded  of  each, 
which  will  conduct  to  Nirvana,  are,  however,  alms- 
giving or  charity,  purity,  patience,  courage,  contempla- 

iMax  Miiller,  Chips  from  a  German  Workshopy  vol.  I.  p.  244. 
See  also  James  F.  Clarke,  Ten  Great  Religions,  p.  156. 


Essential  Virtues  59 

tion,  knowledge;  but  the  greatest  of  all  is  charity. 
Says  a  writer  already  quoted :  ^  "  Charity  or  benevolence 
may  be  said  to  be  the  characteristic  virtue  of  Buddhism 
—  a  charity  boundless  in  its  self-abnegation,  and  ex- 
tending to  every  sentient  being.  The  benevolent 
actions  done  by  the  Buddha  himself,  in  the  course  of 
his  many  millions  of  migrations,  were  favorite  themes 
of  his  followers.  On  one  occasion,  seeing  a  tigress 
starved  and  unable  to  feed  her  cubs,  he  hesitated  not 
to  make  his  body  an  oblation  to  charity,  and  allowed 
them  to  devour  him.  Benevolence  to  animals,  with 
that  tendency  to  exaggerate  a  right  principle  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  east,  is  carried  among  the  Buddhist 
monks  to  the  length  of  avoiding  the  destruction  of  fleas 
and  the  most  noxious  vermin  which  they  remove  from 
their  persons  with  all  tenderness."  (This  exaggerated 
benevolence,  I  may  add,  would  flow  naturally  from 
their  belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls  whereby 
every  animal  might  prove  a  possible  relative.)  But  as 
regards  the  more  important  elements  of  human  con- 
duct, as  Max  Miiller  again  says :  ^  "  Every  shade  of 
vice,  hypocrisy,  anger,  pride,  suspicion,  greediness, 
gossiping,  is  guarded  against  by  special  precepts. 
Among  the  virtues  recommended  we  find  not  only 
reverence  of  parents,  care  for  children,  submission  to 
authority,  gratitude,  moderation  in  time  of  prosperity, 
submission  in  time  of  trial,  equanimity  at  all  times,  but 
virtues  unknown  in  any  heathen  system  of  morahty, 

1  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  III.  p.  155.    See  Max  MuUer,  vol.  I.  p.  245. 

2  Chi'ps  jroni  a  German  Workshop^  vol.  I.  p.  218. 


60  Evolution  and  Religion 

such  as  the  duty  of  forgiving  insults  and  not  rewarding 
evil  with  evil.  All  virtues,  we  are  told,  spring  from 
Maitri,  and  this  Maitri  can  only  be  translated  by 
charity  and  love." 

Peaceableness 

There  is  one  more  remarkable  thing  to  be  noticed  in 
Buddhism  besides  its  spirit  of  self-abnegation  and 
benevolence;  and  that  is  its  constant  appeal  to  reason. 
Like  Christianity,  it  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  vio- 
lence. It  abolished  human  sacrifice  and  all  other 
offerings  of  blood,  substituting  therefor  flowers,  fruits, 
and  incense.  Its  missionaries  overran  x\sia,  preaching 
the  new  gospel  of  benevolence  to  all  created  beings; 
and  how  successful  they  were  may  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  it  numbers  among  its  adherents  to-day  (again  like 
the  Christian  faith),  practically  one  third  of  the  entire 
human  race.  It  did  indeed  vanish  from  the  home  that 
gave  it  birth,  expelled  by  the  contrary  genius  of  the 
Hindu  mind,  but  in  Thibet,  Nepaul,  Ceylon,  Burmah, 
Siam,  China,  and  Japan  it  has  flourished  for  centuries. 
And  that  it  has  succeeded  in  softening  men's  manners, 
in  raising  them  from  the  law  of  the  jungle  to  the  higher 
law  of  unselfishness,  who  shall  deny  ? 

Egypt 

That  the  dark  religion  of  Egypt  contained  this  same 
germinal  idea  of  self-sacrifice  for  the  general  good, 
seems  at  first  thought  impossible.  This  is  because  we 
confuse  the  religion  of  Egypt  with  its  theology.     The 


Animal  Worship  61 

latter  superstructure  has  so  overlaid  the  former  that 
the  foundation  is  buried  well-nigh  out  of  sight.  The 
basic  idea  of  Egypt's  religion  seems  to  have  been  the 
mystery  of  life  and  death.  We  see  this  in  its  rich 
symbolism;  in  its  worship  of  all  bodily  organization, 
whether  manifested  in  human,  animal,  or  plant  life;  in 
its  doctrine  of  future  existence.  Transmigration  of 
souls,  that  most  curious  and  most  ancient  of  all  beliefs, 
was  with  them,  not  as  in  Buddhism  and  Brahmanism, 
a  retribution,  but  a  condition  of  progress  —  thus 
dimly  foreshadowing  our  modern  idea  of  a  constant 
upward  evolution.  According  to  Herodotus,^  the 
human  soul  had  to  pass  through  animals  of  all  classes 
before  it  once  again  entered  the  human  body.  This 
circuit  occupied  3000  years.  It  did  not  begin,  how- 
ever, until  the  body  had  decayed;  hence  if  embalming 
could  postpone  decay  for  1000  years,  so  much  would 
be  eliminated  from  the  journey  through  animal  life. 
From  this  idea,  as  well  as  from  that  of  the  sacredness 
of  all  bodily  organization,  arose  probably  the  religious 
duty  of  preparing  their  tombs  as  dwellings  for  the 
dead  for  such  prolonged  periods  of  time. 

Animal  Worship 

The  Egyptians  also  worshiped  animals.  "  All  ani- 
mals, wild  and  tame,"  says  Herodotus,^  **were  ac- 
counted sacred ;  so  that  if  any  one  killed  these  animals 
wilfully,  he  was  put  to  death."     Wilkinson,  however, 

1  Herodotus,  11.  123.    Clarke's  Tm  Great  EeligixmSy  p.  226,  note, 

2  lUd.  Book  II.  §  65.    Ibid,  p.  227, 


62  Evolution  and  Religion 

has  proved  this  statement  incorrect.  Out  of  a  list  of 
more  than  a  hundred  which  he  enumerates,  over  one 
half  were  regarded  as  sacred,  the  rest  were  not;  a 
fact  which  might  have  been  suspected  from  their  fa- 
vorite pastimes  of  hunting  and  fishing. 

Influence  on  Judaism 

The  speculative  thought  of  Egypt  seems  to  have 
profoundly  influenced  Pythagoras,  and  through  him 
Greece  and  Rome.  That  it  influenced  Moses  is  far 
more  doubtful.  Its  ritual  did  indeed  include  the  rite 
of  circumcision,  the  use  of  figures  resembling  the 
Cherubim  above  the  ark,  the  inner  sanctuary  or  holy 
of  holies  in  the  temple.  The  custom  too  of  offering  a 
prayer  over  a  victim's  head,  "  that  if  any  calamity  were 
about  to  befall  the  land  of  Egypt,  it  might  be  averted 
on  this  head,"  recalls  strongly  to  mind  the  Jewish 
scapegoat  on  whose  head  the  high  priest  was  to  lay 
his  hands,  confessing  the  national  sins  and  putting 
them  upon  the  head  of  the  goat,  so  that  he  might  bear 
upon  him  all  their  iniquities  into  a  land  not  inhabited.* 

Influence  on  Christianity 

But  the  influence  of  Egyptian  thought  on  Christian 
theology  appears  to  have  been  more  pronounced.  Its 
fervid  African  spirit  introduced  asceticism  which  later 
developed  into  monasticism.  The  Alexandrian  schools 
rendered  materialistic  the  Church's  conceptions  of  God, 
Satan,  Angels,  Devils,  Heaven,  Hell,  Judgment,  and 
1  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions  pp.  251,  252. 


Commandments  63 

Resurrection.  On  the  opposite  hand,  they  prevented 
these  ideas  from  disappearing  into  the  thin  nebulous 
spiritualism  of  the  East.  Says  a  writer :  ^  "  The  African 
spirit,  in  the  fiery  words  of  a  Tertullian  and  an  Augus- 
tine, ran  into  a  materialism  which,  opposed  to  the 
opposite  extreme  of  idealism,  saved  to  the  Church  its 
healthy  realism." 

Commandments 

However,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  it  is  not  with 
theology  but  with  religion  that  I  am  concerned.  My 
only  reason  for  obtruding  Egypt's  theology  into  this 
discussion  is  because  it  has  so  colored  that  of  Christen- 
dom that  we  are  apt  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
its  theology  and  overlook  the  basic  idea  of  its  religion. 
Let  us  put  aside,  therefore,  the  subtle  but  unprofitable 
speculations  of  theologians,  and  ask  what  was  the  in- 
fluence of  this  religion  on  the  life  of  the  people.  Did 
it  in  any  way  urge  the  supreme  importance  of  sub- 
ordinating self  to  the  general  good  ?  In  reply,  I  quote 
from  the  Ritual  of  the  Dead,  wherein  the  soul  of  each 
individual  man,  coming  for  judgment  before  the  Lords 
of  Truth,  is  thus  made  to  address  them :  ^ 

"I  have  not  afflicted  any. 

I  have  not  told  falsehoods. 

I  have  not  made  the  laboring  man  do  more  than  his 
task. 

I  have  not  been  idle. 

I  have  not  murdered. 

iZ6ia.p.257.  2/^.  p.  220. 


64  Evolution  and  Religion 

I  have  not  committed  fraud. 

I  have  not  injured  the  images  of  the  gods. 

I  have  not  taken  scraps  of  the  bandages  of  the  dead. 

I  have  not  committed  adultery. 

I  have  not  cheated  by  false  weights. 

I  have  not  kept  milk  from  sucklings. 

I  have  not  caught  the  sacred  birds." 

And  then  addressing  each  god  by  name,  the  soul  is 
made  to  further  declare: 

"I  have  not  been  idle. 

I  have  not  boasted. 

I  have  not  stolen. 

I  have  not  counterfeited,  nor  killed  sacred  beasts, 
nor  blasphemed,  nor  refused  to  hear  the  truth,  nor 
despised  God  in  my  heart." 

According  to  some  texts,  he  is  made  to  still  further 
declare : 

"I  have  loved  God. 

I  have  given  bread  to  the  hungry,  water  to  the  thirsty, 
garments  to  the  naked,  an  asylum  to  the  abandoned." 

Inscriptions 

Or,  consider  the  inscriptions  on  their  tombs,  no  mean 
source  of  interpreting  a  long-forgotten  people's  reli- 
gion :  ^ 

"He  loved  his  father,  he  honored  his  mother,  he 
loved  his  brethren,  and  never  went  from  his  house  in 
bad  temper.  He  never  preferred  the  great  man  to 
the  low  one." 

1  Clarke's  fen  Great  Religions^  p.  221. 


Inscriptions  65 

Or  again,   equally  from  an  inscription  in  Upper 
Egypt: 

"I  was  a  wise  man,  my  soul  loved  God.  I  was  a 
brother  to  the  great  men  and  a  father  to  the  humble 
ones,  and  never  was  a  mischief-maker." 
Or  again,  from  a  priest's  tomb  in  Sais: 
"I  honored  my  father,  I  esteemed  my  mother,  I 
loved  my  brethren,  I  found  graves  for  the  unburied 
dead.  I  instructed  Uttle  children.  I  took  care  of 
orphans  as  though  they  were  my  own  children.  For 
great  misfortunes  were  upon  Egypt  in  my  time,  and  on 
this  city  of  Sais." 

Or  again,  from  the  tomb  of  a  prince  at  Ben-Hassan: 
"What  I  have  done  I  will  say.  My  goodness  and 
my  kindness  were  ample.  I  never  oppressed  the  father- 
less, nor  the  widow.  I  did  not  treat  cruelly  the  fisher- 
men, the  shepherds,  or  the  poor  laborers.  There  was 
nowhere  in  my  time  hunger  or  want.  For  I  cultivated 
all  my  fields,  far  and  near,  in  order  that  their  inhabi- 
tants might  have  food.  I  never  preferred  the  great 
and  powerful  to  the  humble  and  poor,  but  did  equal 
justice  to  all." 

Or  lastly,  from  a  King's  tomb  at  Thebes: 
"  I  Hved  in  truth,  and  fed  my  soul  with  justice.  What 
I  did  to  men  was  done  in  peace,  and  how  I  loved  God, 
God  and  my  heart  well  know.  I  have  given  bread  to 
the  hungry,  water  to  the  thirsty,  clothes  to  the  naked, 
and  a  shelter  to  the  strangers.  I  honored  the  gods  with 
sacrifices  and  the  dead  with  offerings." 

Is  it  strange  that  among  a  people  whose  religion 


66  Evolution  and  Religion 

inculcated  such  practical  morality  as  the  foregoing, 
we  should  find  the  profound  saying  recorded  in  a  papy- 
rus which  is  the  oldest  in  the  world,  written  4,000  years 
ago,  and  preserved  in  the  library  of  Paris  to-day,  "  The 
bad  man's  life  is  what  the  wise  know  to  be  death "  ?  ^ 
Egypt's  idea  of  what  constituted  the  general  good  may 
have  indeed  been  limited  by  the  narrow  confines  of 
country.  It  was  a  national  religion  and  hence  perished 
with  the  nation.  But  that  it  insisted  upon  the  absolute, 
the  religious  necessity  of  subordinating  self-love  to  the 
good  of  others  in  the  nation  at  least,  seems  to  me  un- 
doubted. 


China 

How  is  it  now  with  that  oldest  existing  and  strangest 
of  all  civilizations  —  the  sphinx  of  human  history, 
China?  Here  are  a  people  who  have  seen  Assyria, 
Persia,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome,  all  rise  to  power 
and  decay.  Their  empire  alone  has  survived.  Does 
their  religion  inculcate  also  the  idea  of  individual 
self-sacrifice  for  the  general  good  ?  In  my  estimation, 
Confucius  taught  little  else. 

Confucius 

His  practical   mind   abstained   equally  from  meta- 
physics and   from  theology.     After  meeting  Lao-tse, 
the  philosophical  founder  of  Taoism,  he  is  reported  to 
have  frankly  confessed   his  inability  to  comprehend 
1  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions,  p.  249. 


Commandments  67 

him :  ^  "  I  know  how  birds  fly,  how  fishes  swim,  how 
animals  run.  The  bird  may  be  shot,  the  fish  hooked, 
and  the  beast  snared.  But  there  is  the  dragon.  I 
cannot  tell  how  he  mounts  in  the  air,  and  soars  to 
heaven.  To-day,  I  have  seen  the  dragon."  Con- 
fucius took  the  world  and  its  phenomena  as  he  found 
them,  without  endeavoring  to  know  whence  or  how 
came  ideas  of  morality,  of  duty.  The  theological 
idea  of  God  does  not  yet  seem  to  have  entered  his 
mind  in  connection  with  religious  duty,  though  the 
moral  idea  does.  It  was  suflScient  for  him  that  men 
had  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  The  practical  thing 
was  to  induce  them  to  follow  the  right. 

Commandments 

And  what  were  the  duties  which  he  inculcated  ?  Let 
him  speak  for  himself.     Says  Confucius :  ^ 

"I  teach  you  nothing  but  what  you  might  learn 
yourselves,  viz.,  the  observance  of  the  three  funda- 
mental laws  of  relation  between  sovereign  and  subject, 
father  and  child,  husband  and  wife;  and  the  five  capital 
virtues : 

1.  Universal  charity. 

2.  Impartial  justice. 

3.  Conformity  to  ceremonies  and  estabUshed  usages. 

4.  Rectitude  of  heart  and  mind. 

5.  Pure  sincerity." 

Thus,  the  three  questions  which  Confucius  urged 
upon  his  fellow-countrymen  as  all-important  were: 
1  Ibid.  p.  51.  2  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  IV.  p.  241. 


68  Evolution  and  Religion 

"  1.  How  shall  I  best  fulfil  my  obligations  to  my 
family  ? 

2.  How  shall  I  do  my  duty  to  my  neighbor  ? 

3.  How  shall  I  best  discharge  the  duties  of  a  good 
citizen  ?  " 

Contradictions 

True,  the  Chinese  national  character  appears  to  be 
full  of  contradictions.  The  mere  fact  that  three  differ- 
ent religions,  Confucianism,  Buddhism,  and  Taoism, 
exist  among  them,  would  account  for  differing  standards 
of  morals.  In  so  varied  and  thickly  populated  a  coun- 
try, too,  one  must  expect  contradictory  evidence  from 
different  writers  on  the  subject  of  morality.  Thus 
M.  Hue  says :  ^  "  They  are  destitute  of  religious  feelings 
and  beliefs,  skeptical  and  indifferent  to  everything  that 
concerns  the  moral  side  of  man,  their  whole  lives  but 
materialism  put  in  action."  To  which  Meadows 
replies :  ^  "  All  this  is  baseless  calumny  of  the  higher 
life  of  a  great  portion  of  the  human  race.  These 
charges  may  be  true  of  the  mass  of  the  Chinese,  just  as 
they  are  true  of  the  English,  French,  and  Americans; 
but  as  amongst  these  there  is  a  large  amount  of  gener- 
osity and  right  feeling,  and  also  a  minority  higher  in 
nature,  actuated  by  higher  motives,  aiming  at  higher 
aims,  so  also  is  there  amongst  the  Chinese  a  similar 
right  feeling,  and  a  like  minority  who  live  a  higher  life 
than  the  people  generally." 

1  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  III.  p.  787.    Hue,  Christianity  in  China, 

2  Ibid,  Meadows,  The  Chinese  and  their  Rebellions, 


Government  69 


Government 

However  this  may  be,  whether  the  teachings  of  Con- 
fucius have  succeeded  in  leavening  the  inert  mass  of 
the  people  as  yet,  or  are  confined  in  their  influence  to 
the  high-minded  minority,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the 
tendency  of  the  teachings  themselves.  They  em- 
phasize the  need  of  each  individual's  subordinating 
his  own  immediate  selfish  interests  to  the  general 
welfare.  We  see  this  in  the  Chinese  scheme  of  govern- 
ment, which  is  not  a  pure  despotism  as  so  often  sup- 
posed, but  a  paternal  autocracy  founded  on  moral 
support.  The  Emperor  is  not  free  to  do  as  he  chooses. 
He  is  directly  amenable  to  public  opinion.  He  must 
govern  in  accordance  with  custom.  The  state  religion 
being  founded  on  ancestry  worship,  filial  piety  being 
the  very  basis  of  their  social  fabric,  he  must  stand  for 
conservatism,  reverence  for  the  past,  peace,  order, 
education,  the  worship  of  things  as  they  are.  Their 
philosophy  of  government  is  thus  summed  up  by  a 
writer  already  quoted :  ^ 

"1.  That  the  nation  must  be  governed  by  moral 
agency  in  preference  to  physical  force. 

2.  That  the  services  of  the  wisest  and  ablest  men  in 
the  nation  are  indispensable  to  good  government,  and 
are  to  be  secured  by  public  service  competitive  exam- 
inations free  from  any  element  of  unfairness  or  favor- 
itism. 

3.  That  the  people  have  the  right  to  depose  a  sov- 

1  Meadows. 


70  Evolution  and  Religion 

ereign,  who,  either  from  active  wickedness  or  vicious 
indolence,  gives  cause  to  oppression  or  tyrannical  rule." 

Moral  Teaching 

In  the  Teachings  of  the  Kings,  a  work  reviewed  by 
Confucius,  I  find  the  following:  ^ 

"  Humility  is  the  solid  foundation  of  all  the  virtues. 
To  acknowledge  one's  incapacity  is  the  way  to  be  soon 
prepared  to  teach  others;  for  from  the  moment  that  a 
man  is  no  longer  full  of  himself,  nor  puffed  up  with 
empty  pride,  whatever  good  he  learns  in  the  morning 
he  practises  before  night. 

Heaven  penetrates  to  the  bottom  of  our  hearts,  like 
light  into  a  dark  chamber.  We  must  conform  our- 
selves to  it,  till  we  are  like  two  instruments  of  music 
tuned  to  the  same  pitch.  We  must  receive  its  gifts  the 
very  moment  its  hand  is  open  to  bestow.  Our  irregular 
passions  shut  up  the  door  of  our  souls  against  God." 

And  from  Confucius'  own  teaching  I  take  the  fol- 
lowing :  ^ 

"  To  rule  with  equity  is  like  the  North  Star,  which  is 
fixed,  and  all  the  rest  go  around  it. 

The  essence  of  knowledge  is,  having  it  to  apply  it, 
not  having  it,  to  confess  your  ignorance. 

Formerly,  in  hearing  men,  I  heard  their  words,  and 
gave  them  credit  for  their  conduct;  now  I  hear  their 
words  and  observe  their  conduct. 

The  good  man  is  serene,  the  bad  always  in  fear. 

A  good  man  regards  the  root;  he  fixes  the  root,  and 

1  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions,  p.  57.  2  ihid.  p.  49. 


Zoroaster  71 

all  else  flows  out  of  it.  The  root  is  filial  piety,  the  fruit 
brotherly  love." 

And  according  to  James  Freeman  Clarke,  all  Con- 
fucian philosophy  is  pervaded  by  these  four  principles :  ^ 

"  1.   That  example  is  omnipotent. 

2.  That  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  empire,  you  must 
secure  the  happiness  of  the  people. 

3.  That  by  solitary  persistent  thought  one  may 
penetrate  at  last  to  a  knowledge  of  the  essence  of  things. 

4.  That  the  object  of  all  government  is  to  make  the 
people  virtuous  and  contented." 

Zoroaster 

We  come  now  to  the  creed  of  Zoroaster,  the  religion 
of  ancient  Persia,  the  faith  in  which  Cyrus,  Darius, 
Xerxes,  Artaxerxes,  worshiped.  Inasmuch  as  Zo- 
roaster, or  Spitama  according  to  his  true  family  name, 
was,  roughly  speaking,  a  contemporary  of  Moses,  our 
knowledge  of  his  teaching  is  but  fragmentary,  most  of 
the  sacred  scriptures  having  been  lost  during  the  troub- 
lous five  centuries  that  followed  the  conquest  of  Persia 
by  Alexander.  At  first  a  monotheism,  his  reUgion 
seems  also  to  have  developed  into  a  dualism.  Hence 
comes  the  militant  note  dominant  in  this  reUgion, 
calling  upon  every  faithful  follower  to  always  do  battle 
for  the  right. 

1  Ihid.  p.  53. 


72  Evolution  and  Religion 


Sun  Worship 

Herodotus,  speaking  of  the  Persian  Magi,  450  B.C., 
says :  ^ 

"The  Persians  have  no  altars,  no  temples,  nor 
images;  they  worship  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains. 
They  adore  the  heavens,  and  sacrifice  to  the  sun,  moon, 
earth,  fire,  water,  and  winds." 

Morality 

Enough,  however,  has  been  preserved  of  the  ritual 
of  this  religion  to  prove  that  it  too  was  essentially  moral. 
Like  Buddha,  Zoroaster  seems  to  have  been  a  practical 
reformer,  likewise  leading  a  revolt  against  the  nebulous 
Pantheism  of  India.  His  whole  duty  of  man  is  summed 
up  in  three  cardinal  principles: 

1.    Pure  thoughts. 

2  True  words. 

3.   Right  actions. 

The  substance  of  his  law  is,  "Think  purely,  speak 
purely,  act  purely." 

In  his  liturgy,  the  very  oldest  part  of  the  Avesta,  he 
says :  ^ 

"  I  praise  the  good  men  and  women  of  the  whole  world 
of  purity.  I  desire  by  my  prayer  with  uplifted  hands 
this  joy,  —  the  pure  works  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  —  Mazda 
...  a  disposition  to  perform  good  actions,  .  .  .  and 
pure  gifts  for  both  worlds,  the  bodily  and  the  spiritual. 

1  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions,  p.  175.    Herodotus,  1. 131. 

2  Ibid.  p.  188. 


Morality  73 

I  have  entrusted  my  soul  to  heaven  .  .  .  and  I  will 
teach  what  is  pure  so  long  as  I  can. 

I  keep  forever  purity  and  good-mindedness. 

Teach  thou  me,  Ahura-Mazda,  out  of  thyself;  from 
heaven,  by  thy  mouth,  whereby  the  world  first  arose. 

We  honor  the  good  spirit,  the  good  kingdom,  the 
good  law,  —  all  that  is  good." 

In  the  hymn  to  Mithra,  the  Persian  savior  or  mediator, 
occur  these  verses :  ^ 

"  I  think  in  my  soul :  no  earthly  man  with  a  hundred- 
fold strength  thinks  so  much  evil  as  Mithra  with 
heavenly  strength  thinks  good. 

No  earthly  man  with  a  hundred-fold  strength  speaks 
so  much  evil  as  Mithra  with  heavenly  strength  speaks 
good. 

No  earthly  man  with  a  hundred-fold  strength  does 
so  much  evil  as  Mithra  with  heavenly  strength  does 
good." 

From  one  of  the  Zoroastrian  Patets,  or  formularies 
of  confession,  I  take  the  following :  ^ 

"I  repent  the  sins  against  father,  mother,  sister, 
brother,  wife,  child,  against  spouses,  against  superiors, 
against  my  own  relations,  against  those  living  with  me, 
against  those  who  possess  equal  property,  against 
neighbors,  against  the  inhabitants  of  the  same  town, 
against  servants,  every  unrighteousness  through  which 
I  have  been  amongst  sinners,  —  of  these  sins  repent  I 
with  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  corporeal  as  spiritual, 
earthly  as  heavenly,  with  the  three  words:  pardon,  O 
1  Ibid,  p.  191.  2  iiyid,  pp.  192,  193. 


74  Evolution  and  Religion 

Lord,  I  repent  of  sins.  Of  pride,  haughtiness,  covet- 
ousness,  slandering  the  dead,  anger,  envy,  the  evil  eye, 
shamelessness,  looking  at  with  evil  intent,  looking  at 
with  evil  concupiscence,  stiflF-neckedness,  discontent 
with  the  godly  arrangements,  self-willedness,  sloth, 
despising  others,  mixing  in  strange  matters,  unbelief, 
opposing  the  divine  powers,  false  witness,  false  judg- 
ment, idol-worship,  running  naked,  running  with  one 
shoe,  the  breaking  of  the  midday  prayer,  the  omission 
of  the  midday  prayer,  theft,  robbery,  whoredom,  witch- 
craft, worshiping  with  sorcerers,  unchastity,  tearing 
the  hair,  as  well  as  all  other  kinds  of  sin,  enumerated 
or  not  enumerated,  which  I  am  aware  of  or  not  aware 
of,  which  are  appointed  or  not  appointed,  which  I 
should  have  bewailed  with  obedience  before  the  Lord, 
and  have  not  bewailed,  —  of  these  sins  repent  I  with 
thoughts,  words,  and  works,  corporeal  as  spiritual, 
earthly  as  heavenly,  O  Lord,  pardon,  I  repent  with 
the  three  words,  with  Patet." 

Parsees 

And  as  a  final  proof  of  the  fact  that  Zoroaster's  re- 
ligion taught  pre-eminently  the  duty  of  preferring  the 
general  good  to  self,  let  me  point  to  the  modern  Parsees 
of  India,  a  small  sect  directly  descended  from  his 
ancient  followers  who  were  driven  from  Persia  by 
Mohammedan  persecutions.  Though  few  in  numbers 
their  influence  has  been  great,  simply  because  they 
have  practised  as  their  chief  religious  tenet  the  pri- 
mordial virtues  of  benevolence,  charity,  and  generosity. 


Greece  75 


Greece 


Over  the  more  modern  or  better-known  religions  of 
Greece,  Rome,  Scandinavia,  Judaism,  and  Moham- 
medanism, you  would  hardly  expect  that  I  should 
linger  long.  In  each  the  same  dominant  note  is  found, 
i.e.,  the  duty  of  subordinating  self  to  the  general  wel- 
fare. As  I  have  intimated  before,  this  duty  was  often 
circumscribed  by  the  limited  scope  given  to  the  idea  of 
what  constituted  the  general.  Thus,  morality  in  Greek 
religion  seldom  rose  above  the  idea  of  patriotism,  but 
that  they  worshiped  with  unsurpassed  fervor.  Their 
prophets  were  their  poets.  The  works  of  Homer  who 
sang  of  war,  of  Hesiod  the  peasant-poet  who  sang  of 
home  and  peace,  commerce  and  politics,  of  the  lyric 
poets,  Callinus  and  Tyrtseus,  were  their  earliest  Bible; 
all  of  them  poets  who  made  a  religion  of  patriotism. 
In  the  works  or  utterances  of  many  of  the  Greek  phi- 
losophers we  do  indeed  catch  sight  of  the  higher  truth. 
Pythagoras,  Plato,  Socrates,  and  possibly  others,  all 
had  the  larger  vision  in  smaller  or  greater  measure; 
and  during  the  first  Christian  centuries,  when  Stoicism 
predominated  in  Greek  intellectual  theories,  "philos- 
ophers of  all  schools,  poets,  historians,  and  rhetoricians, 
spoke  like  Seneca  and  Epictetus  of  the  sacred  love  of 
the  world,  of  the  equality  of  man,  of  universal  law  and 
a  universal  republic."  * 

i^m.C2/c.  vol.  XL  p.  810. 


76  Evolution  and  Religion 


Rome 

In  Rome  again,  virtue  did  not  often  extend  beyond 
the  idea  of  duty  owed  to  other  members  of  the  state. 
Thus  it  was  not  lawful  to  scourge  publicly  and  un- 
condemned  a  Roman  citizen;  but  in  the  case  of  an 
outsider  it  mattered  little,  he  had  small  chance  of  re- 
dress. Under  the  tenth  table  of  Roman  law,  nothing 
short  of  the  general  legislature  could  condemn  a  Roman 
citizen  to  death,  but  the  tables  extended  no  such  safe- 
guard over  the  lives  of  foreigners.  And  yet,  the  great 
gift  which  Rome  gave  to  the  world  was  Lg,w,  founded 
on  the  theory  that  "man  is  born  for  justice."  For 
while  the  Greeks  went  further  in  political  speculation, 
the  Romans  worked  out  the  practical  rights  of  citizens. 
As  regards  the  state,  however,  the  sense  of  the  duty  of 
subordinating  self  to  the  general  good  was  something 
marvelous.  Says  a  writer,  speaking  of  the  ancient 
Roman  religion :  ^  "  A  code  of  moral  and  ethical  rules, 
furthering  and  preserving  civil  order,  and  the  pious 
relations  within  the  state  and  family,  were  the  palpable 
results  of  this  religion."  Says  another  writer,  already 
quoted,^  "Never  was  such  esprit  de  corps  developed, 
never  such  intense  patriotism,  never  such  absolute 
subservience  and  sacrifice  of  the  individual  to  the 
community." 

1  Int.  Cyc.  vol.  XII.  p.  722. 

2  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions,  p.  339. 


Scandinavia  77 

Scandinavia 

In  the  religion  of  our  Scandinavian  forefathers,  man's 
chief  virtue  consisted  in  courage;  the  unpardonable  sin 
was  cowardice,*  —  again  a  standard  of  morality  which 
indeed  called  for  the  sacrifice  of  the  individual  to  the 
general  good,  but  which  limited  the  idea  of  the  general 
to  the  nation. 

Mohammedanism 

The  ardor  of  Mohammed's  followers,  who  were 
punctilious  enough  in  the  needful  observance  of  the 
moral  duties  of  their  religious  creed  toward  one  another, 
was  too  often  marred  by  an  excessive  sectarian  loyalty. 
It  degenerated,  through  an  imperfect  religious  ideal, 
into  frightful  excesses  of  cruelty  towards  unbelieving 
outsiders  who  refused  to  accept  their  faith. 

Judaism 

Jewish  morality,  again,  too  often  stopped  short  at 
the  confines  of  the  nation.  And  yet,  in  this  religion 
again  we  catch  occasional  glimpses  of  the  higher 
truth  that  the  general  ought  to  include  the  race;  that  a 
man's  duties  to  his  fellow  are  not  circumscribed  by  the 
narrow  confines  of  family,  village,  city,  tribe,  or  nation, 
but  should  extend  to  all  mankind.     Says  a  writer:  ^ 

"The  prophets  of  the  Jews,  whatever  else  we  deny 
to  their  predictions,  certainly  foresaw  Christianity. 
They  describe  the  coming  of  a  time  in  which  the  law 
1  Ibid.  p.  363.  2  Ibid.  p.  443. 


78  Evolution  and  Religion 

should  be  written  in  the  heart,  of  a  king  who  should 
reign  in  righteousness,  of  a  prince  of  peace,  of  one  who 
should  rule  by  the  power  of  truth,  not  by  force,  whose 
kingdom  should  be  universal  and  everlasting,  and  into 
which  all  nations  of  the  earth  should  flow.  What  the 
prophets  foresaw  was  not  times  or  seasons,  nor  dates 
nor  names,  not  any  minute  particulars.  But  they  saw 
a  future  age,  they  lived  out  of  their  own  time  in  another 
time,  which  had  not  yet  arrived.  They  left  behind 
them  Jewish  ceremonialism,  and  entered  into  a  moral 
and  spiritual  religion.  They  dropped  Jewish  narrow- 
ness and  called  all  mankind  brethren.  In  this  they 
reach  the  highest  form  of  foresight,  which  is  not  simply 
to  predict  a  coming  event,  but  to  live  in  the  spirit  of  a 
future  time.  Thus  the  prophets  developed  the  Jewish 
religion  to  its  highest  point.  The  simple,  childlike 
faith  of  Abraham  became,  in  their  higher  vision,  the 
sight  of  a  universal  Father,  and  of  an  age  in  which  all 
men  and  nations  should  be  united  into  one  great  moral 
kingdom." 

Bearing  on  Man's  Survival 

In  this  survey  of  the  world's  great  religions  we  have 
seen  how  in  all  of  them  the  central  idea  of  subordinating 
self  to  the  general,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  has  been 
constantly  present.  It  therefore  becomes  necessary  to 
scrutinize  more  closely  this  idea  in  its  bearing  on  man's 
survival  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  How  may  it  be 
said  to  favor  the  survival  of  the  family,  of  the  tribe,  of 


Bearing  on  Man's  Survival  79 

the  nation,  of  the  race  ?  You  will  remember  how,  in 
the  process  of  evolution,  man's  struggle  for  existence 
became  enlarged  from  one  between  individuals  to  a 
struggle  between  communities,  or  aggregates  of  indi- 
viduals. If,  now,  man  finds  that  the  general  well-being 
of  the  community,  and  the  satisfaction  of  each  individual 
unit  with  the  basic  justice  of  the  conditions  of  his  lot  in 
life,  aid  in  this  struggle  of  communities  against  each 
other,  the  principle  of  selection  will  naturally  seize  upon 
any  idea  which  fosters  such  general  well-being,  and 
develop  it.  And  what  idea  can  foster  such  well-being 
more  than  the  intelligent  idek  that  it  is  our  sacred  duty 
to  subordinate  the  interests  of  self  to  those  of  the 
general  ?  This  is  the  spirit  of  the  true  soldier  of  the 
commonwealth,  the  spirit  of  subordination.  It  is 
small  wonder  that  man  should  be  impelled  to  make  a 
moral  idea  out  of  it,  that  he  should  even  be  compelled 
to  deify  it.  The  idea  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
continued  existence  of  his  race,  once  he  has  been  forced 
into  community  life,  or  even  into  family  life.  And 
that  the  general  well-being  of  these  aggregates  of  in- 
dividuals tends  to  aid  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
between  communities,  I  need  only  point  for  proof  to 
those  nations  of  the  modern  world,  as  contrasted  with 
other  nations  where  so  wide-spread  a  well-being  is  not 
the  ideal,  or  at  least  has  not  yet  been  attained.  This, 
it  seems  to  me,  is  the  philosophy  of  our  entire  modern 
civilization.  It  is  the  basis  of  our  great  attempted 
liberal  forward  movement.  It  is  the  true  meaning  of 
the  experiment  of  democracy.     It  is  the  purpose  of 


80  Evolution  and  Religion 

our  laws  and  our  religion.  For  in  the  well-being  of  the 
general  mass  of  the  people,  in  their  satisfaction  with 
the  justice  of  the  conditions  of  their  lot  in  Ufe,  in  their 
opportunities  for  self-advancement  and  self-develop- 
ment, seem  to  be  found  the  factors  which  count  most 
powerfully  in  this  competitive  race  between  nations. 

Objection:  Why  Race? 

But,  you  may  ask,  Why  should  I  subordinate  self  to 
the  good  of  the  race  ?  What  is  the  race  to  me  ^  I  can 
understand  the  necessity  of  subordinating  self  to  family 
or  country,  in  order  that  they  may  win  in  the  struggle 
for  existence;  but  I  am  not  aware  of  any  such  compelling 
love  to  the  race.  In  reply,  let  me  ask.  Why  should  you 
subordinate  self  to  the  good  of  your  family,  of  your 
nation  ?  You  will  answer,  truly,  that  it  is  because  you 
love  your  family,  because  you  love  your  nation,  and 
wish  to  see  them  successful  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Precisely;  and  why  do  you  love  your  family  and  your 
nation  ?  Is  it  not,  in  its  ultimate  analysis,  because  you 
feel  that  they  are  of  one  blood  with  you  ?  If  then  you 
can  be  brought  to  believe  (not  through  mere  outward 
lip-service,  but  in  your  heart  of  hearts,  honestly,  sin- 
cerely), that  the  entire  human  race  is  of  one  blood  with 
you,  will  not  that  same  love  and  sympathy  which  you 
give  so  freely  to  family  and  nation  extend  so  as  to  em- 
brace all  mankind  ?  Will  you  not  desire  to  see  the  race 
equally  successful  in  its  struggle  for  existence?  Not 
indeed  until  you  fully  realize  that  we  are  all  members 
of  one  family,  of  one  tribe,  of  one  race  of  human  beings. 


Law  of  Mortality  81 

will  your  love  develop  sufficiently  to  enable  you  to 
subordinate  self  to  the  race.  But  that  way  lies  the 
ideal;  that  way  lies  perfection. 

Law  of  Mortality 

We  are  all,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  wise  and 
foolish,  prince  and  pauper,  nobleman  and  commoner, 
Caucasian  and  Ethiopian,  Malay  and  Mongolian,  pas- 
sengers on  one  boat,  bound  to  one  port.  The  same 
planet  carries  us,  the  same  fate  awaits  us.  Some  may 
travel  first-class,  some  second,  some  steerage;  but  the 
dangers  which  confront  us  are  the  same,  our  destina- 
tion is  the  same.  We  are  all  living  under  one  inexor- 
able law  of  life  and  death.  Sometimes,  when  a  great 
cataclysm  overwhelms  many  of  our  race  at  one  stroke, 
we  feel  the  truth  of  this  oneness  of  race  through  this 
inexorable  law  of  life  and  death.  The  imaginations 
of  those  of  us  who  survive  are  impressed  by  the  dramatic 
quality  of  the  blow.  But  the  law  of  mortality  is  ever 
the  same.  Whether  it  come  in  the  form  of  earthquake, 
thunderstorm,  pestilence,  famine,  conflagration,  vol- 
canic outburst,  intense  cold,  fierce  heat,  wild  beast,  or 
in  the  more  humble  and  usual  form  of  disease,  accident, 
or  simply  man's  inhumanity  to  man,  death  comes  to 
all  alike.  To  ward  off  these  enemies  for  all  time  from 
the  individual  is  not  possible.  The  survival  of  the 
individual  unit  is  impossible.  But  we  can,  as  a  race, 
present  a  united  front  to  all  these  enemies  of  mankind 
alike,  realizing  that  thus  only  can  the  perfection  of  our 
race  be  secured.     We  surely  do  not  want,  however,  to 


82  Evolution  and  Religion 

waste  our  strength,  energy,  and  ammunition,  firing 
into  the  ranks  of  each  other,  simply  because  some 
regiments  in  the  army  of  our  common  race  happen  to 
wear  a  different  uniform  from  our  own.  The  race  has 
all  that  it  can  do  to  fight  and  overcome  life's  natural 
enemies  without  adding  to  their  number  artificial 
enemies  of  its  own  making,  through  a  lack  of  sense  of 
our  common  humanity. 

Patriotism 

I  have  often  wondered,  if  some  brave  Babylonish  or 
Egyptian  youth  who  sacrificed  his  life  for  those  dead 
empires  in  their  heyday  of  strength  three  or  four  thou- 
sand years  ago  could  miraculously  be  brought  back  to 
life  to-day,  whether  he  would  consider  that  the  game 
had  been  worth  the  candle.  His  empires  have  long 
since  vanished  from  the  earth;  his  people  are  scattered 
never  to  be  reunited.  What  is  there  to  show  for  the 
heroic  sacrifice  which  he  made  of  his  brave  young 
life?  Apparently,  absolutely  nothing.  And  yet,  did 
such  a  thought  as  this  deter  our  own  brave  American 
youth  both  North  and  South  when  the  great  Civil  War 
issued  its  dread  summons  ?  Will  it  indeed  ever  deter 
brave,  self-sacrificing  idealists,  at  least  until  they  have 
grown  beyond  the  more  limited  horizon  of  mental  sym- 
pathy known  as  patriotism?  Not  until  that  horizon 
widens,  you  may  be  sure,  will  their  idea  of  morality 
change  in  this  respect,  or  rather,  become  enlarged  so 
as  to  entertain  the  wider,  more  profound  ideal  of  race 
loyalty. 


So-Called  Races  83 

So-Called  Races 

There  are  symptoms  to-day  that  this  horizon  is  be- 
coming enlarged.  For  instance,  a  favorite  doctrine  of 
old  international  law  was  that  a  subject  could  not  cast 
off  his  allegiance  to  the  land  of  his  birth  without  the 
consent  of  his  sovereign.  The  United  States,  one  of 
the  youngest  in  the  family  of  nations,  has  always  in- 
sisted on  expatriation  as  a  fundamental  right  of  man. 
It  is  an  exclusively  American  doctrine,  but  we  would 
seem  to  be  succeeding  measurably  in  our  novel  conten- 
tion. I  think  it  will  hardly  be  questioned  that  patriotic 
sentiment  is  steadily,  not  declining,  but  being  overlaid 
by  a  wider  race  sentiment.  Men  have  a  vague  sort  of 
idea  that  it  is  somehow  too  narrow  for  the  field  of  human 
sympathy  that  a  mere  accident  of  birth  in  a  certain 
locality  should  be  allowed  to  circumscribe  their  feelings 
of  humanity.  To  go  forth  and  shoot  fellow  human 
beings  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  happen  to 
belong  to  a  nation  at  war  with  one's  own  nation  —  a 
war  in  all  probability  brought  on  through  the  folly  or 
venality  of  ruling  powers  —  becomes  increasingly  dis- 
tasteful and  repulsive  to  thinking  men  as  their  horizon 
of  sympathy  widens.  The  danger  now  is  lest  we  con- 
tent ourselves  with  but  a  single  step  in  advance  and 
stop  short  at  a  so-called  "race"  loyalty.  Recent 
events,  particularly  the  war  in  the  East,  have  opened 
men's  eyes  to  the  apparently  impending  struggle  in  the 
marts  of  trade  between  the  so-called  yellow  and  white 
races.     To   what   lengths   the   coming   strife   for   the 


84  Evolution  and  Religion 

markets  of  the  world  will  lead,  no  one  can  safely  say. 
Thinkers  who  have  noted  the  marvelous  tenacity  of 
life  displayed  by  the  so-called  yellow  race  under  the 
most  unfavorable  climatic  conditions,  have  come  to 
the  improbable  though  perhaps  not  unnatural  con- 
clusion that  the  future  belongs  to  them.  Their  ca- 
pacity for  work,  their  enormous  numbers,  their  ability 
to  live  on  the  simplest  of  food  and  consequently  for 
wages  which  would  mean  starvation  to  any  other  race, 
their  adaptive  genius  for  making  use  of  the  inventions 
of  their  Western  brethren,  whether  warlike  or  indus- 
trial, certainly  seem  to  render  them  formidable  an- 
tagonists and  competitors  for  the  future.  The  feeling 
between  the  black  and  the  white  races,  also,  is  already 
notorious  and  deep-rooted.  It  crops  out  in  many  lands 
to-day  where  the  two  races  come  into  contact;  in  Cen- 
tral Africa,  in  South  Africa,  with  the  Belgians,  English, 
Germans,  and  Portuguese.  Who  that  read  of  the 
many  ambushes  of  the  white  race  by  the  yellow  during 
the  recent  war  between  Russia  and  Japan,  when  the 
whites  with  still  whiter  faces  ran  wildly  hither  and 
thither  seeking  cover,  could  fail  to  recall  to  mind 
similar  wholesale  slaughters  of  blacks  by  whites  in  the 
Dark  Continent  ?  There  was  apparently  the  same  cold- 
blooded rounding  up  of  the  quarry  as  so  much  game, 
the  same  cynical,  heartless  indifference,  the  same  racial 
contempt  and  f orgetfulness  of  the  fact  of  human  kinship. 
In  our  own  country,  the  feeling  between  the  blacks  and 
the  whites  shows  itself  in  abominable  crimes,  in  un- 
speakable offenses  on  the  one  hand,  in  savage  out- 


One  Race  85 

bursts  of  fierce  retaliatory  passion  on  the  other.  Our 
relations,  too,  with  the  so-called  brown  race  in  our 
island  possessions  can  hardly  be  termed  cordial.  Those 
of  the  French  with  the  similar  or  related  race  in  Mada- 
gascar do  not  seem  to  be  much  better.  Nay,  more, 
this  feeling  of  antagonism  is  not  even  confined  to  the 
larger  divisions  of  mankind,  the  so-called  white,  yellow, 
black,  or  brown  races.  You  may  see  it  in  the  prejudice 
between  the  so-called  Slav,  Latin,  Teutonic,  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  races,  absurd  as  it  seems  to  speak  of  these  varying 
nationalities  as  races.  You  may  see  it  in  the  wide- 
spread feeling  against  the  so-called  Semitic  race. 

One  Race 

And  yet,  as  a  matter  of  scientific  fact,  these  racial 
distinctions  would  appear  to  be  largely  fictitious. 
In  support  of  this  assertion,  I  invite  any  one  to  tell 
me  the  exact  number  of  races,  so  called,  which  exist  in 
the  world  to-day.  Some  naturalists  in  the  past  would 
have  answered  sixty-three,  sixty,  twenty-two,  sixteen, 
fifteen,  eleven,  eight,  seven,  six,  five.  To-day  some 
will  answer  four,  three,  even  two;  the  number  being 
steadily  narrowed  as  man's  knowledge  of  himself  in- 
creases.^ Some  will  attempt  to  distinguish  them  by 
the  color  of  their  skin.  Others,  deeming  this  unscien- 
tific, will  attempt  to  distinguish  them  by  the  length  or 
shortness  of  their  skulls;  others,  by  their  facial  angle. 
Still  others  again,  rejecting  all  these  methods  as  un- 
trustworthy, will  attempt  to  distinguish  them  by  the 
1  Darwin,  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  p.  218. 


86  Evolution  and  Religion 

character  of  their  hair;  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there 
seems  to  be  no  safe  criterion,  no  clearly  defined  dividing 
line.  All  the  so-called  races,  even  the  highest  with 
the  lowest,  can  interbreed  and  yet  their  offspring  is 
fertile ;  something  we  should  hardly  expect  if  the  parents 
were  of  different  species.  Says  a  recent  writer  on 
anthropology:^  "The  drift  of  the  evolutionary  theory 
is  towards  unity  of  origin.  Darwin  says,  'When 
naturalists  observe  a  close  agreement  in  numerous 
small  habits,  tastes  and  dispositions,  between  two  or 
more  domestic  races,  or  between  nearly  allied  forms, 
they  use  the  fact  as  an  argument  that  all  are  descended 
from  a  common  progenitor,  who  was  thus  endowed; 
and  consequently  that  all  should  be  classed  under  the 
same  species.  The  same  argument  may  be  applied 
with  much  force  to  the  races  of  men.'  ^  The  experience 
of  the  last  few  years  countenances  Mr.  Darwin's 
prophecy,  that  before  long  the  dispute  between  those 
who  hold  that  all  men  come  from  one  pair  and  those 
who  hold  to  diverse  originals,  will  die  a  silent  and  un- 
noticed death." 

Race  Love 

The  belief  to  which  Darwin  apparently  inclined 
seems  to  be  becoming  tacitly  accepted  more  and  more. 
The  term  "races"  is  a  convenience,  but  it  hardly  ex- 
presses a  scientific  fact.  Essential  race  unity  as  one 
great  human  family,  appears  to  approach  more  closely 
to  the  strictly  scientific  statement  which  will  satisfy 

1  Int.  Cyc,  vol.  I.  p.  514.  2  Descent  of  Man,  vol.  I.  p.  225. 


Race  Love  87 

all  the  facts  of  the  case.  But  the  evolutionary  ideals 
of  at  least  three  of  the  great  world-religions  would  seem 
to  have  forestalled  by  from  two  to  three  thousand  years 
this  latest  discovery  of  science.  In  other  words,  man's 
emotional  intuitions  in  this  all-important  question 
appear  to  have  been  just  three  cycles  ahead  of  his  in- 
tellectual perceptions.  The  prophets  of  Israel,  Gau- 
tama, and  Jesus  were  the  first  of  all  the  sons  of  men  to 
look  beyond  the  narrower  horizon  of  national  and  so- 
called  race  prejudice  (at  a  period,  too,  in  the  world's 
history  when  man's  reason  regarded  almost  every 
separate  nationality,  tribe,  people,  caste,  or  even  in- 
habitants of  a  city,  as  constituting  a  separate  race),  and 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  larger  vision  of  the  essential  unity 
of  mankind.  All  through  the  intervening  ages  since 
they  taught,  whilst  man  has  been  blindly  groping  his 
intellectual  way  upwards,  now  basing  his  moral  ideas 
on  the  inherent  antagonism  between  survival  of  self 
and  survival  of  family,  survival  of  tribe,  survival  of 
town,  survival  of  nation,  survival  of  so-called  races, 
they  have  held  steadily  forth  before  the  view  of  man- 
kind their  ideal  of  race  unity.  This  ideal  of  itself 
rendered  not  only  violence  and  war,  but  murder, 
adultery,  fraud,  revenge,  hatred,  envy,  and  selfishness, 
sins  which  militated  against  race  survival.  The  only 
principle  that  will  drive  out  these  primordial  passions 
of  the  human  heart  appears  to  be  family  love.  Love 
does  it  already,  more  or  less  imperfectly,  in  our  present 
family  life.  Love  does  it  already,  more  or  less  imper- 
fectly, in  our  national  Ufe.     Love  will  do  it,  more  or, 


88  Evolution  and  Religion 

less  imperfectly  at  first,  in  our  race  life.  But  as  love 
grows,  so  will  these  purely  selfish  passions  die  which 
militate  against  man's  general  well-being;  so  will  be 
substituted  in  their  place  a  love  as  wide  and  boundless 
as  the  universe,  knowing  no  separate  castes  or  creeds, 
no  divided  nationalities,  no  differing  races,  but  em- 
bracing all  mankind;  a  sympathy  for  and  with  all  men, 
and  the  acts  which  naturally  flow  from  such  an  honest 
sympathy.  Had  the  mental  horizon  of  the  peoples  to 
whom  this  ideal  was  addressed  widened  sufficiently  yet 
to  enable  them  to  entertain  so  enlarged  and  profound 
a  moral  idea  ?  Not  in  the  least.  But  the  evolutionary 
ideal  was  set  before  the  race,  and  some  day  the  race, 
somewhere,  somehow,  would  slowly  grow  up  to  it  in  a 
people  which  should  bring  forth  the  fruits  thereof. 

Love  Without  Reason 

But  you  must  always  apparently  be  on  your  guard 
against  one  danger.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  exaggerate 
unduly  the  emotional  side  of  man's  nature  as  it  is  the 
intellectual  side;  easier,  perhaps.  In  this  wider  view 
of  the  race  as  one  great  human  family,  we  must  equally 
guard  against  the  evils  which  an  exaggerated  love, 
untempered  by  reason,  produces  in  our  present  family 
life.  In  other  words,  love  must  always  be  guided  by 
intelligence.  Listen  to  the  following  suggestive  pas- 
sage taken  from  a  writer  on  the  family  life  in  Africa 
to-day,  and  tell  me  whether  the  phenomenon  is  con- 
fined to  the  Dark  Continent  alone.^  "In  most  tribes 
1  Nassau,  Fetkhism  in  West  Africa,  p.  156. 


The  Golden  Mean  89 

of  the  Bantu  the  unit  in  the  constitution  of  the  com- 
munity is  the  family,  not  the  individual.  However 
successful  a  man  may  be  in  trade,  hunting,  or  any  other 
means  of  gaining  wealth,  he  cannot,  even  if  he  would, 
keep  it  all  to  himself.  He  must  share  with  the  family, 
whose  indolent  members  thus  are  supported  by  the 
more  energetic  or  industrious.  I  often  urged  my  civi- 
lized employees  not  to  spend  so  promptly,  almost  on 
pay-day  itself,  their  wages  in  the  purchase  of  things 
they  really  did  not  need.  I  represented  that  they 
should  lay  by  'for  a  rainy  day.'  But  they  said  that  if 
it  was  known  that  they  had  money  laid  up,  their  rela- 
tions would  give  them  no  peace  until  they  had  com- 
pelled them  to  draw  it  and  divide  it  with  them.  They 
all  yielded  to  this,  — '  the  strong,  the  intelligent,  the 
diligent,  submitting  to  their  family,  though  they  knew 
that  their  hard-earned  pay  was  going  to  support  weak- 
ness, heathenism,  and  thriftlessness." 

The  Golden  Mean 

We  have  the  same  indolent  members  both  in  our 
family  life  and  in  the  larger  world  community  to-day, 
those  who  would  like  to  be  supported  by  the  more 
energetic  and  industrious.  Man's  instinct  of  gener- 
osity as  well  as  man's  needs,  are  diligently  exploited 
by  the  spoilers  of  the  race.  It  would  seem  to  be  a 
strict  middle  course  that  we  must  steer  in  dealing  with 
this  fundamental,  but  intricate,  delicate  problem.  For 
man's  head  impels  him  to  selfishness;  man's  heart 
urges  him  toward  generosity;  either  quality  may  be 


90  Evolution  and  Religion 

easily  exaggerated.  As  usual,  the  golden  mean  appears 
to  lie  between.  In  the  evolutionary  ideal  of  the  right 
use  of  property,  for  instance  (one  of  the  fundamental 
bases  of  all  human  progress),  the  theories  of  a  Robert 
Owen  or  an  Edward  Bellamy,  who  allow  the  emotional 
side  of  their  nature  to  get  the  upper  hand  of  them, 
seem  to  err  on  the  side  of  undue  emotionalism  quite  as 
profoundly  as  the  theories  of  a  Ricardo  or  a  John 
Stuart  Mill,  who  exaggerate  the  intellectual  side  of 
their  nature,  err  on  the  side  of  over-intellectualism. 
Remember  that  man  is  complex.  One-sided  theories 
will  not  settle  the  question.  It  is  a  biological  problem; 
and  the  biological  conditions  of  life,  the  evolutionary 
struggle  between  the  two  ideas,  survival  of  race  and 
survival  of  self,  appear  to  be  the  only  thing  that  can 
satisfactorily  settle  it.  The  middle  line  of  conduct, 
which  shall  produce  race  perfection  or  the  development 
of  the  highest  type  of  man,  is  apparently  the  only  safe 
line  to  follow;  and  that  will  be  found,  I  think,  in  giving 
free  play  to  intelligence  tempered  by  emotion;  in  other 
words,  to  individual  self-interest  controlled  by  the 
ever-growing  restraint  imposed  on  the  individual 
through  this  ideal  of  an  enlarged  family  affection  for 
the  race. 

Law 

There  are  those  to-day  who  apparently  believe  only 
in  salvation  by  law.  This  is  our  modern  pet  heresy. 
But  law,  I  think  you  will  find,  where  it  touches  the 
subject  of  man's  conduct,  is  only  man^s  ideals  crystal- 


Law  91 

lized  more  or  less  imperfectly  into  concrete  form.  It  is 
what  we  call  applied  justice.  Unless,  therefore,  those 
ideals  have  become  accepted  by  a  decisive  majority  in 
a  given  community,  the  laws  which  attempt  to  crystal- 
lize them  prematurely  will  be  of  worse  than  no  eflFect. 
They  will  remain  a  dead  letter.  They  will  not  be 
enforced.  And  this  will  ultimately  exert  a  deadening 
influence  on  public  sentiment,  accustoming  it,  as  it 
does,  to  seeing  the  law  broken  with  impunity.  Ac- 
cordingly it  seems  hardly  wise  to  attempt  by  law  to 
force  an  ideal  upon  a  community  before  its  time. 
Probably  one  of  the  hardest  things  in  life  for  generous- 
minded  spirits  who  have  caught  the  vision  of  a  higher 
ideal,  is  to  possess  their  souls  in  patience  until  their 
ideal  has  come  to  be  generally  accepted.  And  yet 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  salvation  in  law  fer  se. 
Salvation  apparently  cannot  come  from  without;  it 
must  come  from  within.  Ideals  must  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  precede  the  law,  which  is  only  crys- 
tallized ideals.  Thus,  Christianity  is  said  to  have  abol- 
ished slavery  among  the  nations  of  Christendom;  but 
the  ideal  of  man's  equality  in  the  sight  of  God,  and 
hence  before  the  law,  had  to  come  first  and  be  gener- 
ally accepted,  before  it  could  become  crystalHzed  suc- 
cessfully into  human  law.  In  like  manner,  we  have 
already  in  our  law  to-day  the  crystallized  ideal  that 
no  one  shall  use  his  property  so  as  to  injure  another; 
and  that  the  social  organism  is  justified  in  thus  pro- 
tecting itself  against  the  abuse  of  private  property 
rights,  goes  without  saying.     But  this,  like  Confucius* 


9£  Evolution  and  Religion 

rendering  of  the  golden  rule,  is  after  all  only  the  nega- 
tive side  of  man's  ideal  of  right  conduct  as  regards  the 
use  of  property.  When  you  come,  however,  to  the 
positive  side  of  the  ideal,  viz.,  that  a  man  shall  use 
his  property  for  the  benefit  of  others  as  well,  then  it 
seems  to  me  that  you  are,  in  the  present  day  at  least, 
traveling  out  of  the  domain  of  law  into  what  is  as  yet 
only  the  realm  of  ideals,  and  not  a  generally  accepted 
ideal  at  that.  In  homely  English,  you  would  be  trying 
to  put  the  cart  before  the  horse,  to  establish  the  law 
before  the  ideal  had  become  generally  accepted  among 
men.  Law,  by  the  very  nature  of  it,  must  deal  mainly 
with  the  negative  side  of  the  ideal,  the  "Thou  shalt 
nots"  of  human  conduct.  As  commonly  expressed, 
you  cannot  by  legislation  make  a  people  moral.  The 
best  that  you  can  do,  by  law,  is  apparently  to  prevent 
men  from  too  flagrantly  sinning  against  the  crystallized 
ideals  of  their  race.  But  when  you  would  have  law 
invade  the  positive  side  of  the  ideal  as  well,  the  "  Thou 
shalts  "  of  human  conduct,  then  it  seems  to  me  that  you 
are  treading  on  very  delicate  ground.  For  how  is  it 
with  the  family  life  to-day,  of  which  human  society 
under  our  new  thought  is  to  become  only  an  enlarge- 
ment ?  Can  a  father  forcibly  impose  upon  any  one 
of  his  sons,  who,  through  native  ability,  foresight, 
shrewdness  or  self-denial,  happens  to  be  better  off 
than  the  rest  of  his  brothers,  the  duty  of  devoting  his 
property,  as  clothed  with  a  family  interest,  to  the  gen- 
eral family  use  ?  Not  in  the  least.  The  regulation 
of  such  matters  is  left,  and  left  wisely  in  my  opinion. 


Law  93 

either  to  the  principle  of  competition  or  to  the  ideal 
of  family  love.  Even  Roman  law  —  in  which  paternal 
power  over  children  seems  to  have  been  well-nigh  abso- 
lute ;  in  some  of  whose  modern  descendants,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  father  is  forbidden  to  absolutely  disinherit  a 
wayward,  degenerate  child;  which  looked  at  property 
in  land  as  coming  from  the  state,  as  opposed  to  our 
feudal  idea  that  the  owner  of  land  is  the  conqueror  of 
the  land,  and  hence  holds  the  rights  of  a  conqueror 
—  even  Roman  law  would  hardly  go  so  far  as  to 
attempt  to  enforce  the  positive  side  of  the  ideal;  far 
less  our  Anglo-Saxon  law  with  its  broader  spirit  of 
liberty,  its  tendency  to  refrain  from  all  unwarrantable 
interference  with  the  rights  of  the  individual.  Let 
us  beware  lest  we  are  led  into  the  fatal  mistake  of 
attempting  to  demand  from  individual  members  of  the 
state  a  higher  standard  of  community  morality  than  we 
are  willing  to  live  up  to  ourselves  as  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  family.  The  ideal  of  love  must  prevail 
equally  on  both  sides,  the  community's,  the  majority's 
side,  as  well  as  the  individual's  side.  Mob  tyranny  is 
not  one  whit  better  than  individual  tyranny;  if  anything, 
it  is  worse.  Extend  the  ideal  of  the  family  standard  as 
far  as  you  please  until  you  have  included  the  entire 
race.  But  do  not  try  too  soon  to  raise  that  standard  to 
an  impossible  height,  by  law,  before  the  ideal  has  first 
preceded  it  and  become  generally  accepted.  Other- 
wise, I  cannot  help  thinking  that  by  using  force  pre- 
maturely, you  will  only  succeed  in  arousing  men's 
antagonism  to  the  ideal,  and  so  defeat  your  own  ends. 


94  Evolution  and  Religion 

Violence 

There  are  those  on  the  other  hand  to-day  who 
would  bring  about  the  reign  of  equity  on  earth  by 
violence.  FooUsh  attempt.  So  long  as  men  will  to 
live  under  the  law  of  the  jungle,  the  strong  must  pre- 
vail over  the  weak.  The  clever,  the  crafty,  the  un- 
scrupulous will  continue  to  exploit  and  prey  upon  the 
slow-witted,  the  single-minded,  the  honest.  Violence, 
apparently,  can  never  cure  these  evils.  Attempts  to 
wrest  away  superfluous  wealth  by  violent  means  will, 
as  in  the  case  of  law,  only  rouse  men's  latent  antagonism, 
and  make  them  all  the  harsher  in  their  use  and  abuse 
of  wealth.  Men  are  born  with  unequal  talents.  There 
is  no  use  evading  the  fact.  It  is  patent  to  any  one  who 
will  open  his  eyes  and  look  about  him.  When  our 
Declaration  of  Independence  asserts  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  it  refers  to  the  equality  of  every  human 
being  before  the  law,  equality  of  political  and  civil 
rights.  Even  in  this  restricted  meaning  of  equality 
it  expressed  an  ideal  rather  than  a  fact,  seeing  that  the 
document  was  penned  by  a  slave-holder.  But  it  cer- 
tainly never  meant  that  men  are  born  with  equal 
talents.  The  clever  will  always  rule  in  the  end.  This 
is  what  would  seem  to  explain  in  part  the  failures  of 
the  long  line  of  communistic  and  socialistic  communi- 
ties which  have  endeavored  to  realize  the  ideal  of  equal 
opportunity,  of  a  commonwealth;  inasmuch  as  com- 
munism, by  the  very  nature  of  it,  cannot  outlast  more 
than  one  or  two  generations  of  mankind  because  (unless 


Selection  95 

the  principle  of  selection  seizes  upon  it  because  it  finds 
that  it  aids  in  the  struggle  for  existence),  there  is  nothing 
to  insure  its  acceptance  by  the  oncoming  generations. 
In  the  long  run  it  runs  up  against  human  nature, 
i.e.,  the  basic  passion  of  covetousness,  which  proves  too 
strong  for  its  fine-spun  theories  of  equal  rights.  Not 
until  a  change  is  made  in  the  ideals  of  the  individual 
men  who  go  to  make  up  a  community  can  you  look 
for  even  the  remote  possibility  of  success  in  realizing 
man's  evolutionary  ideal  of  justice.  It  would  seem  to 
be  iEsop's  fable  of  the  wind,  the  sun,  and  the  traveler, 
over  again.  The  blustering  wind  of  violence  cannot 
induce  the  traveler  to  remove  his  cloak.  He  will  only 
button  it  up  the  more  closely  about  him.  But  the  sun 
of  love,  genial  in  its  warmth  and  kindliness,  will  con- 
strain him  of  itself  to  lay  aside  his  cloak  as  something 
superfluous  and  excessive,  as  something  which  he 
really  does  not  need. 

Selection 

But,  it  may  be  finally  objected.  What  is  to  become  of 
the  principle  of  selection  once  this  ideal  of  a  common 
humanity  is  attained?  If  the  law  of  universal  love, 
guided  by  reason,  is  to  prevail,  what  will  become  of  the 
struggle  for  existence  which  seems  indispensable  to 
produce  the  best  and  highest  type  of  race  perfection.^ 
You  need  never  fear,  even  when  man  has  attained  his 
highest  ideal,  that  he  will  ever  escape  from  the  law  of 
the  struggle  for  existence.  Most  of  man's  enemies  will 
apparently  always  be  with  him.     Advancing  knowledge 


96  Evolution  and  Religion 

may  indeed  mitigate  the  power  of  some  of  them,  for  as 
man's  ignorance  of  the  phenomena  of  Hfe  diminishes 
so  his  control  over  these  natural  enemies  increases. 
The  wild  beasts  to-day  are  practically  vanquished,  out- 
side of  the  tropics  and  the  polar  regions.  Disease 
germs  are  being  attacked  more  successfully  day  by  day. 
Famines  are  growing  rarer  through  scientific  investi- 
gation of  obscure  blights  on  crops,  and  through  in- 
creased transportation.  Suffering  from  fierce  heats 
can  be  relieved  somewhat  by  growing  facilities  for 
escaping  temporarily  at  least  from  the  plague  spots 
and  pest  holes  of  city  life;  intense  cold  can  be  alle- 
viated by  the  use  of  newly  discovered  fuels  and  im- 
proved methods  of  heating.  Thunderstorms,  floods, 
too,  can  be  guarded  against  in  a  measure.  Even  con- 
flagrations may  be  avoided  or  mitigated,  in  some  cases, 
through  watchfulness  and  better  facilities  for  controlling 
or  fighting  fire.  But  the  struggle  to  overcome  life's 
enemies  will,  apparently,  never  wholly  pass  away  as 
long  as  the  evolutionary  conditions  of  man's  life  remain 
unchanged.  The  main  thing  for  our  race  to  do  would 
seem  to  be  to  present  a  united  front  to  all  these  enemies 
of  life  alike  —  not  forgetting  to  extirpate  the  traitors 
in  its  own  ranks,  the  wild  beasts  of  selfish  passion  in 
man's  own  heart,  which  by  preying  on  the  needs  or 
weaknesses  of  his  fellowman  render  it  more  difficult  to 
overcome  the  natural  enemies  of  life. 


Intellectual  Knowledge  97 

Intellectual  Knowledge 

There  are  many  to-day  who  regard  intellectual 
ignorance  as  the  sole  enemy  of  mankind.  Educate  the 
people,  they  say,  to  an  increased  perception  of  the  true 
meaning  of  the  physical  phenomena  of  life,  and  all  will 
be  well.  These  would  appear  to  be  persons  of  only 
one  idea.  That  man's  control  over  the  physical 
enemies  of  his  life  has  increased,  as  advance  in  intel- 
lectual knowledge  has  lessened  his  fears  of  the  unknown, 
goes  without  saying.  But  man  has  to  deal  with  more 
than  physical  enemies  alone.  The  most  powerful  and 
insidious  enemies  of  his  life  are  yet  before  him  to  be 
met,  combated,  and  overcome.  Intellectual  educa- 
tion alone  will  not  overcome  them.  On  the  contrary, 
intellectual  education  by  itself,  without  some  restrain- 
ing influence  that  shall  really  restrain,  only  goes  to 
render  these  enemies  more  formidable  to  the  general 
well-being.  The  advance  in  physical  knowledge  to-day 
with  its  discoveries  of  exciting  stimulants,  powerful 
drugs,  and  high  explosives,  puts  it  in  the  power  of 
educated  demons  to  work  havoc  amongst  large  num- 
bers of  their  fellowmen.  Unless  some  adequate  moral 
and  self-restraining  influence  be  found,  society  will 
find  itself  ultimately  compelled  to  exterminate  these 
assailers  of  the  social  organism.  The  true  enemies  of 
the  future  to  be  overcome,  therefore,  are  not  alone  the 
physical  enemies  of  life,  not  alone  intellectual  ignorance, 
but  the  selfish  passions  in  each  individual  man's  heart, 
enemies  like  anger,  lust,  lying,  revenge,  hatred,  envy. 


98  Evolution  and  Religion 

and  covetousness.  They  are  not  physical  or  intellec- 
tual enemies,  but  moral  and  spiritual  enemies.  They 
have  to  be  overcome  by  moral  and  spiritual  means. 
All  the  knowledge  in  the  world  concerning  the  physical 
phenomena  of  life  will  not  serve  to  expel  them.  On 
the  contrary,  that  knowledge,  as  I  have  said,  often 
serves  only  to  render  them  so  much  the  more  dangerous 
to  the  general  well-being  that  the  social  organism  is 
ultimately  obliged  to  assist  Nature  in  wiping  out  their 
slaves  or  devotees  as  degenerate,  pernicious  forms  of 
lower  life. 


Christianity 

We  come,  therefore,  to  the  teaching  of  Christianity  in 
its  bearing  on  this  central  idea  of  the  supreme  need  of 
subordinating  self  to  the  general  welfare,  and  must 
endeavor  to  approach  it  in  the  same  catholic  spirit  with 
which  we  have  endeavored  to  examine  the  other  great 
world-religions.  Dwelling  on  the  shortcomings  of 
the  followers  of  all  religions  in  attaining  the  ideal  set 
before  them,  teaches  nothing.  The  battle  between 
self  and  altruism  is  a  never-ending  one,  both  in  the  life 
of  the  individual  and  in  the  life  of  the  race.  It  has  to 
be  renewed  in  each  successive  oncoming  generation. 
The  great  school  of  Self  ever  has  its  self-interested 
advocates,  powerful  and  ready  to  speak  in  behalf  of 
the  narrower  standard  of  morality.  But  the  supreme 
point  in  every  religion  is  its  ideal.  If  the  followers  of 
the  ancient  Jewish  prophets,  if  the  followers  of  Gau- 


The  Gospel  99 

tama,  or  those  of  Jesus,  have  fallen  short  of  the  world- 
wide charity  and  love  which  those  Teachers  preached; 
if  they  have  been  guilty  of  theological  narrowness, 
sectarian  persecution,  national  prejudice,  —  these  sins 
must  be  laid  to  the  shortcomings  of  self  in  its  struggle 
with  the  altruistic  principle,  or  to  a  fault  in  the  method 
of  attaining  the  ideal,  or  to  a  failure  in  providing  an 
adequate  motive;  not  to  any  shortcomings  in  the  ideal 
itself. 

The  Gospel 

What  then  is  this  gospel  of  Jesus  of  which  we  hear  so 
much  and  yet  understand  so  little?  I  reply,  it  is  for 
one  thing,  the  highest,  broadest  ideal  yet  vouchsafed 
to  mankind  of  the  evolutionary  idea  of  survival  of  race 
as  opposed  to  survival  of  self,  of  the  supreme  need  of 
subordinating  self-love  to  race-love,  if  we  would  have 
our  race  attain  perfection.  Combined  with  this,  it  fur- 
nishes a  practical  method  of  attaining  that  ideal,  and  an 
adequate  motive  for  putting  the  method  into  practise. 
It  contains  within  it  the  germ  of  fear  which  we  have 
seen  in  fetichism,  but  it  is  fear  ennobled  by  trust.  It 
recognizes  symbolism  too,  but  symbohsm  purified  of  its 
grossness.  It  has  all  the  purity  of  Zoroastrianism,  the 
spirituality  of  Brahmanism,  the  reverence  for  parents 
and  worship  of  the  general  well-being  and  common- 
sense  of  Confucianism,  the  regard  for  the  sacredness  of 
life  and  death  found  in  the  religion  of  Egypt,  the  worship 
of  law,  order,  and  justice  found  in  that  of  Rome,  the 
adoration  of  beauty,  strength,  and  wisdom  of  Greece, 


100  Evolution  and  Religion 

the  respect  paid  to  freedom  and  courage  in  the  old 
Norse  Eddas,  and  last,  and  highest  of  all,  the  lofty 
spirit  of  renunciation  which  is  the  crowning  glory  of 
Buddhism  and  of  higher  Israel.  In  a  word,  it  is  the 
highest  type  in  the  evolution  of  religion,  inasmuch  as 
it  has  taken  and  gathered  up  into  itself  all  the  per- 
fections of  the  other  religions  of  the  world. 

The  Mind  of  Christ 

The  truth  of  the  foregoing  will,  I  believe,  be  made 
plain  to  you  as  you  come  to  study  more  and  more 
Christ's  own  words;  but  I  must  warn  you,  in  closing 
this  study  of  evolutionary  ideals,  that  by  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  I  do  not  mean  many  of  the  theological  dogmas 
which  have  been  developed  since  his  day,  nor  the  actual 
practise  of  some  of  his  so-called  churches  of  to-day. 
They  would  seem  to  resemble  more  the  tenets  and 
practise  of  the  Jewish  church  of  his  time,  against  whose 
abuses  he  so  strongly  inveighed.  Scarcely  one  of  the 
invectives  which  he  launched  against  that  church 
might  not  apparently  be  equally  launched  against 
many  of  our  modern  so-called  Christian  churches. 
To  understand  fully  his  teaching  we  must  strive  to 
enter  into  the  mind  of  Christ,  to  have  in  our  minds  the 
same  ideas  which  he  had  in  his  mind,  when  he  spoke 
of  God,  sons  of  God,  the  Father,  the  Holy  Spirit  or 
Comforter,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  repentance 
unto  life,  the  new  birth,  righteousness,  judgment,  life 
eternal.  To  enter  into  the  mind  of  Christ  is  not  easy. 
If  you  desire  proof  of  this,  consider  how  often  his 


The  Mind  of,'  Chmst  ;->,.,  > . ,  >  ,101 

church,  composed  of  thoroughly  sincere  men,  has 
wandered  away  from  the  simplicity  and  breadth  of  his 
teaching.  His  words  have  so  often  been  covered  with  the 
gloss  of  false  interpretation,  laid  over  the  tropes  and 
allegories  of  language  which  he  used,  that  it  is  difficult 
to-day  to  wrest  them  back  to  their  primal  simple  mean- 
ing. But  the  core  of  Christianity  lies  not  in  any  accre- 
tions of  interpretation  or  belief  wherewith  a  naive, 
childhke  faith  may  since  have  overlaid  it.  It  consists 
in  the  embodied  ideal  of  love,  the  Life,  that  was  lived 
on  this  earth  two  thousand  years  ago;  and  in  the  trans- 
figuring power  of  that  Life,  not  only  over  humble 
fisher-folk  at  the  time  as  witnessed  in  the  marvelous 
letters  and  sayings  of  the  apostles,  but  over  the  life  of 
every  human  being  who  has  since  come  into  the  world 
and  been  willing  to  listen  attentively,  modestly,  and 
appreciatively  to  the  story  of  that  Life. 


"Love  comes  from  God;  and  all  who  love  are  begotten  of  God 
and  are  learning  to  know  him.  Those  who  do  not  love  have  not 
learnt  to  know  God;  for  God  is  love.  No  human  eyes  have  ever 
seen  God;  yet  if  we  love  one  another,  God  is  living  in  union  with 
us,  and  his  love  attains  its  perfection  in  us.  We  may  know  that 
we  are  living  in  union  with  him,  and  he  with  us,  by  this  —  by  his 
having  given  us  some  measure  of  his  spirit "  (of  love) .  "  If  a  man 
says  that  he  loves  God,  and  yet  hates  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar;  for 
if  a  man  does  not  love  his  brother  whom  he  has  seen,  he  cannot 
possibly  love  God  whom  he  has  not  seen.  If  any  one  has  worldly 
possessions,  and  yet  looks  on  while  his  brother  is  in  want,  and  steels 
his  heart  against  him,  how  can  it  be  true  of  him  that  he  has  the 
love  of  God  within  him?  My  children,  do  not  let  our  love  be 
mere  words,  or  end  in  talk;  let  it  be  real  and  true." 

— He  who  best  knew   the   mind  of  the  Master,  —  John,  the 
beloved  disciple:  Twentieth  Century  New  Testament, 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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General  Library 

University  of  California 

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U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES  yB  22390 


CDDblSiabS 


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